After nearly one week without issuing a public statement, the lawyer who went viral for harassing two Spanish-speaking women at a fast-food restaurant in Midtown Manhattan has finally spoken.
Aaron Schlossberg posted an apology on social media, insisting that despite his despicable behavior he's not a racist and actually loves New York City because of its diversity.
"To the people I insulted, I apologize. Seeing myself online opened my eyes — the manner in which I expressed myself is unnaceptable and is not the person I am," he wrote. "I see my words and actions hurt people, and for that I am deeply sorry."
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— AaronSchlossbergLaw (@ASchlossbergLaw) May 22, 2018
The incident occurred last Tuesday, when Schlossberg went ballistic because two Latinas were speaking in Spanish with employees at at a Fresh Kitchen in Manhattan. He yelled at the group to speak English because "this is America," before threatening to call U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities on them. The women involved in the incident are U.S. citizens, making Schlossberg's assumption a classic case of racial profiling.
"My guess is, they’re not documented. So my next call is to ICE to have each one of them kicked out of my country," he told the manager at Fresh Kitchen. "If they have the balls to come here and live off of my money. I pay for their welfare. I pay for their ability to be here."
(Undocumented people do not qualify for welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, Social Security, the Affordable Care Act, and most public benefits.)
It's important to note that Schlossberg apologized for his behavior, not the content of his words. In his apology, he added that "while people should be able to express themselves freely, they should do so calmly and respectfully." So, going forward, would he calmly threaten to call ICE, instead of doing so aggressively?
It's also not the first time that Schlossberg has harassed people and acted like a true-and-tried racist in public, either. In October 2016, he threatened to call the police on a U.S. citizen and called him an "ugly fucking foreigner." And in May of last year, Schlossberg angrily yelled at an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man in a protest, saying the man was not a "true Jew" and flipping his middle finger at the protesters.