Owner of Kansas City’s 1st Viet coffee shop believes it was targeted in post-election vandalism
By Bryan Ke
Café Cà Phê, Kansas City, Missouri’s first Vietnamese coffee shop, was vandalized early in the morning after Election Day. “Waking up to real two nightmares today, and we are not well,” the cafe
- What happened: Surveillance footage shows a gray Chevrolet SUV pulling up to the cafe’s location at 916 East 5th Street in Columbus Park around 2 a.m. A masked man then exited the vehicle and repeatedly threw rocks at the business, shattering its glass windows and door before driving off. Kansas City police arrived at the scene at 7:42 a.m. Cafe owner Jackie Nguyen told The Kansas City Star that she learned of the incident from her managers before they opened the store on Wednesday. While authorities have not classified the incident as a hate crime, Nguyen, a first-generation Vietnamese American, believes it was a targeted attack and not a burglary since the perpetrator did not enter. It was the third attack on her business, with previous incidents involving break-ins at her cafe and mobile cart. Nguyen is an activist for the Asian American community and once displayed a sticker in her business that read, “I’VE HEARD ENOUGH FROM OLD WHITE MEN.”
- Community mobilizes: After the news broke out, community members rallied to help the cafe recover by donating and showing patronage. Bety Le Shackelford, the cafe’s director of community outreach, said donations have covered the glass replacement, which cost almost $2,000. Expressing her gratitude to the “unstoppable” community, Nguyen told The Kansas City Star, “Our community shows up just as much as we show up for them, and we know that, they know that.” Aside from the glass, Nguyen is adding a new security system to deter further attacks. The cafe accepts Venmo donations via @cafecaphe.
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