Teriyaki restaurant’s message to deputies sounds like one huge misunderstanding

Taken from Friday’s edition of the Dori Monson Show.

I hadn’t thought about whether a Skagit County Sheriff should have posted something on Facebook regarding four deputies’ experience at Lucky Teriyaki.

I thought it was fun that Sheriff Will Reichardt posted. While there is a lot of tension, especially right now in our country, if a cop is told he can’t eat here, especially in the wake of what the law enforcement community had to deal with in Dallas, I understand them talking about what had happened to them in their own community. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t thought about whether that was right or wrong.

The Bullpen Sports Bar and Grill in Sedro Woolley decided to turn the whole thing on its heels and create a positive experience on Aug. 2.

“I’d rather focus on the positive of this support that law enforcement has in our community rather than somebody who has made a poor decision,” owner Dave North told me.

North is getting together with all the restaurants in Skagit County to ask for a donation to law enforcement. The community is asked to go eat at all the restaurants that are participating. All donations will go to Behind the Badge foundation, which supports fallen officers’ families.

“I’m hoping we make big money for them,” North said.

He’s not sure if he’ll ask Lucky Teriyaki to join him.

“I don’t know. That’s a hard question. You know, my heart goes out to them. They’re family too. They made a knucklehead comment and then backed it up,” North said. “I think the right thing to do is ask them to join. Of course, we’re not going to say no to bring dollars towards this great cause.”

After speaking with North, we talked to KIRO 7’s Natasha Chen, who was able to interpret what happened from the side of Lucky Teriyaki’s owner, who speaks very little English. The owner’s son can speak a little more, but not by much.

“I think that there is a whole bunch of confusion here,” Natasha said. “He told me that he has always welcomed police officers. We spoke with neighbors, who said that there is always a patrol car in that parking lot.”

“As far as the actual incident goes, I believe there was confusion among other customers in the establishment at the time.”

Natasha said the owner told her the other customers spilled liquids and that got conflated with the presence of law enforcement being there. She said the owner wasn’t clear about what exactly the Lucky Teriyaki employee said, but he thought it something to the effect of whether the deputies were leaving. The intention was not at kicking the deputies out for good.

Natasha explained that the son had received so many calls that were angry, fast and all in English. A call from the sheriff’s office confirming the incident may have been one of those calls the son was trying to field.

“He said, ‘I just kept saying OK, OK, OK.’ I personally wonder if he kept saying OK to something he didn’t understand.”

The sheriff posted a response on the Facebook page on Friday.

If it was truly a language barrier and misunderstanding, should the sheriff have posted that original Facebook post?

Natasha said she can completely understand where law enforcement is coming from if they felt they were receiving a message like that after recent events. At the same time, having spoken to the father and son, she believes they don’t really have the language capacity to ask others to spread a negative message to law enforcement. Their vocabulary didn’t seem up to that level.

She believes the elder Mr. Lee has no ill will towards law enforcement.

“He even asked me ‘Why would I ask them to leave when they’re the ones who protect us?”

So I’m taking back my comments. I’m taking Natasha’s word on the restaurant owner’s sincerity.

Taken from Friday’s edition of the Dori Monson Show.