As major cities continue to wrestle with rioting and violence, small business owners have said they are afraid of what could happen.
As several American cities continue to experience riots and violence months after the death of George Floyd, small business owners have expressed concern about their safety and security.
Lyna Postuchow, owner of A Summer’s Garden Florist in Kenosha, Wisconsin, said that rioters broke the windows to her store without reason.
“I want to hear an end to the violence,” she told Fox Business.
President Trump was also scheduled to visit Kenosha on Sep. 1.
“I want to hear positive things from him,” Postuchow added. “This is a wonderful city, a wonderful country and we need to find the positivity in all of our lives so that we can all move forward.”
Thankfully the National Guard has been deployed to Kenosha and Postuchow said that she now feels safe with her business being reopened.
Other business owners don’t feel as protected.
A Subway Franchise owner, Stacey Gibson, said that Portland police are being held back from protecting the public and that they told her “their hands were tied” after her store was robbed.
“Action is what we’re looking for here,” Gibson said. “The violence has been going on for an incredible amount of time now, over 90 days. Businesses are fleeing. We’re just afraid at this point.”
The Portland district attorney also recently announced that his prosecutors would not be pursuing criminal charges for certain rioters and protesters, including those with standalone riot accusations and trespass charges.
Small businesses are not only vital to the prosperity of our economy, they embody the American dream and represent the resilience and hard-working attitude we strive for as a nation.
Now is the time to help small businesses by supporting the institutions that protect them, the men and women of law enforcement especially. We must continue to elect leaders that have their best interests in mind, and consequently, the best interests of all American citizens.