WON’T BE A VICTIM

Merchant stands guard in L’ville

Fadi Faouri has slept in his store in downtown Louisville, Ky., for 122 straight nights, trying to protect a livelihood that is nearly destroyed.

“If I leave my store, I leave to go home, take a shower, change my clothes and go back,” he said.

It’s been this way since the nation erupted in protest following the May 25 death of George Floyd.

In Louisville, the death of Breonna Taylor, killed by police when they raided her apartment March 13, was joined with Floyd’s as a rallying cry for demonstrators.

The protests are often violent, noted Faouri, 38.

On Wednesday night, Larynzo Johnson, 26, allegedly shot and wounded two Louisville cops during protesting; he has been ordered held on $1 million bail.

“Stuff is being damaged on a nightly basis, people are shooting at each other every night,” Faouri said. “Every night we have a new store that got looted.”

Business is so bad right now because of the protests, Faouri planned to move his shop to a new spot a few blocks away, starting Monday.

The new location was torched Thursday night. “It got burned to the ground,” he said.

After state Attorney General Daniel Cameron announced that a grand jury declined to indict any police officers in Taylor’s death, the crowds grew bigger and even more destructive.

So on Friday night, Faouri took his gun and leaned against the window of the VIP Smoke Shop as the protesters marched by, as he did dozens of times over the past few months. This time, a reporter was on the scene when activists confronted Faouri. The video he shot of marchers confronting Faouri went viral.

“Does Black Lives matter?” a young black man asks Faouri in the clip. A woman adds, “Does Breonna Taylor matter?” and a crowd quickly gathers.

Faouri, who immigrated from Jordan as a teenager and moved to Louisville from California about 10 years ago, said about 50 people stood around him — but he refused to engage.

“They cannot force me to say something I don’t want to say,” he said.

Faouri thinks much of the demonstrating smacks of hypocrisy.

“If I made it in this country with no language whatsoever when I came in, and $100 in my pocket, nobody has any right to say they can’t make it in this country.”

Angry demonstrators gathered again Saturday night in defiance of the city’s curfew — on the 122nd day of protests.

TOUGH: Fadi Faouri guards his Louisville smoke shop, gun in hand, while protesters confront him Friday night. He has slept in his store every night since trouble began.