MILLION ‘MANI’ MARCH
Protest after ‘racial attack’ by salon staff
Scores of angry protesters forced the closure of a Brooklyn nail salon Monday, throwing bottles and shoes as cops escorted the owner and a worker to safety in the wake of a racially charged brawl between employees and customers.
Nine officers stood guard outside the Asian-run 888 Happy Red Apple Nails shop as about 75 predominantly black demonstrators held hand-lettered signs saying, “BLACK $$$ MATTERS” and chanted slogans, including “Shut them down!” and “No money! No toes! No nails!”
Cops led the salon’s male owner and a female employee to an unmarked police cruiser at around 2 p.m. The pair was driven to the 67th Precinct station house to talk to investigators, sources said.
About an hour later, the store, at 1426 Nostrand Ave. in East Flatbush, was shuttered and the remaining workers were driven away in an NYPD van.
The protest followed a violent confrontation inside the salon Friday during which three patrons tussled with workers — allegedly over a $5 eyebrow wax gone bad for Christina Thomas, 21.
“She had practically all her eyebrow off,” Thomas’ mom, Abby Moses, told WCBS/Channel 2. “He said, ‘I’ll fix it.’ She said, ‘ You can’t fix it!’ ”
Surveillance and cellphone footage from Friday shows two workers whacking customers with broomsticks, with one patron staggering toward the door as a worker rains blows on her back.
Salon manager Michael Lin said Monday that he was willing to let the eyebrow wax go for free — but wanted payment for other services rendered.
The customer didn’t want to pay, Lin said, and it got physical when he had employees block the woman from leaving before officers arrived.
“She said she didn’t like it and doesn’t want to pay for nothing,” Lin told WNBC/Channel 4.
“I said, ‘Sit down, let me call the police. If the police say you can go, you pay nothing. [If the] police say you pay for the pedicure, then you pay for the pedicure. No eyebrow, no problem.’ ”
Bystander Mercy Maduka, who posted the cellphone video online, wrote Monday on Instagram that the melee began after “the Asian lady in the blue shorts messed up the ladies eyebrow and it was completely bald.”
Salon worker Huiyue Zheng, 32, and Thomas were arrested Friday on charges that included misdemeanor assault, harassment and menacing.
Zheng was identified by law-enforcement sources as the broom- stick-wielding worker who chased the customer out of the store. Moses, on Instagram, said workers threw acetone at her daughter and her friends.
In a statement, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams called the online video “deeply disturbing and unacceptable.”
A spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said, “We are in the process of examining all the evidence in this case.”
Tionna Smalls, 33, said she helped organize Monday’s protest because “I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the video.
“You don’t got no respect for this community, then you don’t get no money in this community. That’s it,” Smalls said.
A spokesman for Mayor de Blasio declined to comment beyond saying, “We are monitoring the situation closely. We have community liaisons on the ground.”
Hours after the demonstration outside 888 Happy Red Apple, cops escorted employees out of another Brooklyn nail salon after protesters besieged that shop, which they believed has the same owners.
The protesters marched from the scene of Friday’s brawl to the Beautiful Red Apple Nails at 1224 Nostrand Ave. and trapped four employees inside.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the two salons are, in fact, related. But officers were ready and inside with workers.
Demonstrators chanted, “F-ck the police” and “No nails, no toes, these racist shops have got to go.” At least one protester shouted, “Where is ICE?,” implying that the salon’s employees might be undocumented.
Cops hurried the employees — three women and a man — into a police van before they sped away.