Watch: The owner of Laced Boston reacts after his South End store was looted
"I can understand the plight that the youth deal with and the emotions they feel and what runs through them," Joamil Rodriguez said.
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Joamil Rodriguez arrived at his store Laced on Monday morning to find its windows smashed and shoes stolen, one of the many businesses affected by the looting and vandalism following Sunday night’s peaceful protest in Boston.
The loss was substantial: According to the Boston Globe, over $75,000 of merchandise was stolen from his streetwear store. But after taking time to clean up the debris, Rodriguez took to Laced’s Instagram to share that, while the staff did not “condone the actions and are saddened by the vandalism that went down late last night at the end of what had been a beautiful and highly successful protest, we are more deeply saddened by the loss of life that has lead to this rage. We stand with the young people in their outrage and through our relationships remain committed to exposing them to longer lasting and more effective techniques in their fight for equity and humanity.”
Rodriguez, a Boston native who grew up in Roslindale, also expressed his reaction to the looting with a video.
“My roots are heavy here, always have been,” he said. “My parents were first-generation immigrants. They went through the busing riots and a lot of the challenges that Boston faced. Last night was very powerful. To me, it was a loss of course; it felt [like] a violation. I was broken into. I’m not going to deny or hide my feelings about being upset about it, but I have to remind myself — and I want to remind others — that this isn’t about me. This isn’t about stores being looted, this is about a loss of life.”
He also shared how he empathized with the young people who were participating in these protests, and that he was working on a way to dedicate himself to youth and “collaborating with the right people” to move forward positively.
“I can understand the plight that the youth deal with and the emotions they feel and what runs through them,” Rodriguez said. “I was young, and I deal with a lot of young people around me. So it’s very hard to not relate or not feel them.”
Since the video was released, Laced has auctioned off a custom-made shoe storage bench and plans to donate the proceeds to the Official George Floyd Memorial Fund. The store is also selling T-shirts to help raise funds to rebuild the shop.
Check out the full video of Rodriguez’s response below.
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