Karen Schoenfeld

Karen Schoenfeld owns Yester Year's, a bar in West Allis, Wisconsin.

Yester Year's became nationally known when video surfaced of Obama being burned in effigy there as onlookers cheered.



Initially, Schoenfeld wasn't talking about the incident, but she's broken her silence.

From TMJ4:

Thursday evening TODAY’S TMJ4 reached the bar’s owner Karen Schoenfeld.

“It happened in my bar, so I have to take responsibility,” Schoenfeld said by telephone. “But, there was nothing racial about this.”

She declined to do an on-camera interview saying, “I’ve had threats against me because of what happened. That’s why I’m reluctant to go on television. I’m not looking for my fifteen minutes of fame.”

TMJ 4 video.

From FOX 6 News:

The burning of a President Obama effigy catches the attention of the secret service. The owner of the tavern named Yester Years says she has been in West Allis for 32 years, and has never had anything like this happen. She's been getting threats for something she says was blown out of proportion.

...The owner of Yester Years says it was not racially motivated, but bad judgment from customers who had too much too drink. She didn't want to go on camera, because she's worried about her family's safety after getting threatening phone calls.

 

From WISN 12 News:

Karen Schoenfeld told WISN 12 News it was a case of "Cuervo gone wild."

...Since the video was released, Schoenfeld said her family has been getting death threats.

"I have to take full responsibility because it did happen at my bar," she said. "But it was not racially motivated."

WISN video.

The Secret Service has dropped its investigation, but the NAACP doesn't want to drop the issue.

Obviously, some people are interested in exploiting the matter to advance their own agenda.

Schoenfeld is receiving death threats simply because she owns the bar where the incident occurred. People have threatened to burn down the bar and her home. That's horrible.

I hope authorities are investigating those threats and taking them seriously.

I wonder if any of the threats against Schoenfeld are racially motivated.

I really don't understand why people upset about something they perceive to be offensive and violent respond by being offensive and threatening violence.

They certainly have no moral highground when they issue threats.

According to WISN, the plastic statue of Obama that was briefly set on fire at the bar was about the size of the reporter's microphone. This doesn't appear to have been some sort of planned demonstration. It seems plausible that it was indeed a case of "Cuervo gone wild."

If a small group of patrons at a bar burned an American flag and cheered, or if a group burned an effigy of George W. Bush, I doubt the incident would have received the sort of attention given to the burning of the Obama figure.

Most likely, rather than condemn those acts, some Leftists and some in the media would have joined the cheering.