Protest planned outside South Elgin Lions Club after 3 denied entry
A 20-year-old from South Elgin is spearheading a protest Saturday outside the town's Lions Club, which he and his friends say denied them entry into bingo because of their race, an accusation the club disputes.
Jesus Garcia said he and his friends, Mark Rodriguez, 19, of Elgin, and Anthony Laparry, 22, of Joliet, went to bingo Feb. 1 at the Lions Club. Garcia said he lives nearby and saw a sign saying it was open to the community.
The club's bingo is open to people over 18. Asked to show IDs, Garcia and Laparry showed their driver's licenses. Rodriguez, who recently moved to Illinois, showed his temporary driver's license issued on paper by the Illinois Secretary of State, they said. The trio said club representatives questioned Rodriguez's ID and escorted them off the premises, then called police when they returned with Garcia's mother. No arrests were made.
The club said in a statement emailed to the Daily Herald by vice president Gary Hyman that the men were asked to leave after Garcia and Laparry “started to use profanity and threatened to harm the security officer” when Rodriguez was asked for a second ID.
However, the three said they left quietly when asked, but then exchanged words when security officers reacted angrily after they said they believed they were kept out because of race. “We were treated very poorly, along with my mother, for no reason at all,” Garcia said.
The three friends acknowledged the club has the right to refuse entry but said they saw no reason for it. Police confirmed the IDs were all valid.
One of the security people asked Rodriguez to repeat his last name a few times and initially said he was going to keep Rodriguez's temporary ID, but eventually gave it back.
Garcia's mother, Yareliz Flores, said when her son and his friends came home and told her what happened, she tried to straighten things out. She called the club, then went there with the three to get clarification about the ID policy.
“I thought as a mom, ‘OK, there was misunderstanding, miscommunication, so let's go over there.' I thought they would let them stay there and play,” she said. “But from the moment I walked in, it wasn't like that.”
The club said Flores “starting yelling and alleged that the club's actions were racially motivated.” Police were called after the group was asked to leave, the statement said.
South Elgin Deputy Chief Mike Doty said club representatives told police they were unfamiliar with state-issued temporary IDs and “felt better with another acceptable form of ID.” After speaking with police, the club said the friends could come back for bingo the following Saturday. Officers didn't have a chance to tell that to the group, which by then had left, Doty said.
The club said it “apologizes for any misunderstanding about policies and procedures.” The club follows the protocols of alcohol service training and asks for a second ID when the first ID is “questionable,” the statement said. The club said it “in no way condones discrimination, particularly discrimination based upon race or national origin.”
The three friends said their protest Saturday will be peaceful. “We did not walk in there loud or yelling or being obnoxious. We walked in there and asked a simple question: ‘How can we play bingo?'” Garcia said. “And immediately we were treated poorly.”