A Philadelphia restaurant was vandalized in the early hours of New Year’s Day, and the owner has accused antifa of being responsible for the damages.
Vandals spray-painted “F— piss boys” on the side of Millcreek Tavern and broke a number of windows. The restaurant is owned by retired police officer Jack Gillespie, and he told the Washington Examiner that there was approximately $20,000 worth of damage.
Gillespie blamed antifa for the vandalism. The two parties have a tenuous relationship after a November incident in which Millcreek Tavern was accused of allowing the Proud Boys, a right-wing group that has violently clashed with antifa activists, to recruit members in the restaurant.
The owner claims that a conservative group called the restaurant to see if they could accommodate a party of approximately 20 people, which they said they could do. While he said they had a file with them labeled “Proud Boys,” Gillespie maintained the group was connected to Turning Point USA, a conservative organization.
“The night ended without any incidents,” Millcreek Tavern wrote on their Facebook page at the time. “The group had no meeting that have knowledge of, no ‘recruitment’ nor any interaction with other patrons. On Saturday 11/16/19 something came over on FB that caught my attention. ‘Millcreek allows Proud Boys as a recruitment haven’. I was confused because I had no idea who/what this meant. After doing some research, I was appalled.”
It went on, “I have since found out that the group that had came in on Friday evening are not members of Proud Boys. They are in fact members of TPUSA (Turning Point USA). Proud Boys does not like TPUSA because they are far to moderate.”
Gillespie called antifa “a terrorist organization” and accused those individuals of being “full of hate.” He also added that he doesn’t know who the conservatives in question are and that he’s not “in touch with them.”
He explained that this is the second time his restaurant has been vandalized since that incident. The first time occurred about a week after the alleged recruiting event when someone broke a window.
*story by The Washington Examiner