A Midwestern woman has sought a protective order against the manager of an independent cafe after she was kicked out for saying she was ‘scared’ by the sight of a teenage Muslim waitress.
Michelle Wallpe, 49, of Noblesville, Indiana, clashed with local Uptown Cafe manager Alex Bevins, 37, on August 22, in a fight that escalated onto social media and later into the courts.
The chaos ensued after Wallpe noticed a 15-year-old server wearing a hijab, something she said ‘scared’ her and prompted her to ask employees whether the cafe was ‘run by Muslims’.
Wallpe explained what happened in a since-deleted video. ‘I sat down and I noticed that there was an employee wearing a habeeb or hajeeb or whatever you call that head covering,’ she said in the clip shared on her Facebook page.
‘I just asked the waitress, is this place run by Muslims by any chance? Because I just was curious, I got a bad vibe when I walked in there, like, nobody was friendly.
‘Even the customers were looking like they were in a bad mood, kinda like, focused, and didn’t want to make eye contact, and would just look away, even when I smiled.’
‘So I asked one of the girls, she was young, you know, is it run by Muslims? She said no. I said, okay good, I just wondered, they like, scare me, so I just was curious.’
Wallpe said she was then served by Bevins, who had been told by the younger servers about her question, and was ‘really rude’.
Michelle Wallpe, 49, has sought a protective order against the manager of an independent cafe after she was kicked out for saying the sight of a teenage Muslim waitress had ‘scared’ her
Uptown Cafe manager Alex Bevins, 37, said that she had banned Wallpe from her cafe over her ‘racist’ comments to a 15-year-old server named Aisha. Bevins is pictured above on the right in an image shared in support of Aisha, who is shown on the left
The customer said this prompted her to ask Bevins whether she was ‘alright’ when she came to give her the check, and the manager ‘freaking flipped out’.
‘She said, you need to leave, you’re not welcome back here any more, you can’t be asking these questions’, Wallpe told her Facebook followers.
Bevins responded with a video of her own, explaining that ‘in the moment, I felt something needed to be done’ about Wallpe’s comments to her staff.
The cafe manager added that their local community has ‘rallied behind us and shown so much love and support’ for the 15-year-old Muslim server.
‘I just think it’s really great that in times like this people can come together and just be kind,’ Bevins said.
She later wrote on Facebook that there was ‘no place for racism, hatred, or discrimination at Uptown’.
‘I love the people I work alongside with my whole heart, and I will always stand up for them and make sure they know they are valued, supported, and protected,’ she said.
However, the saga quickly escalated, as Wallpe filed for a protective order against Bevins, while hitting back against claims that she was ‘racist’.
Independent establishment Uptown Cafe is located in Noblesville, Indiana
Wallpe has since filed for a protective order against Bevins, court documents show
Wallpe’s petition for the order claimed that Bevins had started ‘yelling’ at her in the cafe before she told her to leave.
‘I paid the bill and left,’ Wallpe said in the petition.
‘I made a short video on my Facebook page stating that I got bad service and was going to report to her boss. That was around 1pm.
‘By 5pm I had 9k views on my video and 100 negative harassing comments. Some threatening. A couple of comments were from Alex.’
Wallpe also said that Bevins had ‘perpetuated the harassment’ and ‘made a handful of harassing comments’ by ‘exploiting my fears and even posted an image of me at my Catholic Church wearing a hijab’.
‘That is hugely insulting and immature not to mention unprofessional,’ Wallpe said in the petition.
Wallpe also made a bizarre post on Facebook claiming that her fear of Muslim people stemmed from incidents like people being ‘stoned in Dearborn Michigan’, likely referring to claims by far-right commentator Jake Lang.
‘Please understand that our American laws are for all of us,’ Wallpe wrote. ‘Being scared isn’t a crime and isn’t hateful. If you follow American laws, you will not be feared or hated’.
The Daily Mail has reached out to Noblesville Police Department for further information.
