Pennsylvania Women Facing Hate Crime Charges After Racist Rant in Hatboro Pizzeria

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A Women who was seen on social media belligerently ranting racist remarks to an employee at Amy’s Pizzeria, is now facing charges.

Rita Bellew, 55, has been charged with ethnic intimidation and harassment charges by Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office and the Hatboro Police Department. Bellew was coming to pick up her order from Amy’s Pizzeria when she seen that they had a spanish speaking channel broadcasted.

“You want to have Spanish on your TV?” Bellew asked the employee working at the counter.

“What’s wrong with that?” the employee said.

“What’s wrong with that is you’re not an American, dude,” she responds. “I will look you the f*** up and get you the f*** out of our town!”

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The encounter ensued for almost two minutes. Offended by the store’s exercised right to display content of their choosing on their television, she demanded a refund. When she realized she was being recorded, she began to pull out her phone to document her point of view of the situation. Authorities were called to diffuse the altercation,

Once the video was released, Authorities were forced to prosecute Bellew. “When we viewed the video, it was really over the top. It was a racially-fueled, profane rant directed at their heritage and it’s not going to be tolerated,” said Hatboro Chief of Police James Gardner.

The video went viral, attracting global attention.  Owner of Amy’s Pizzeria, Omar Quinonez, went on to speak of the incident and how supportive people have been. “We got calls from everywhere: South America, Europe… it was unbelievable,” said Quinonez. “I was angry but I just didn’t want to be like them. I wasn’t expecting that. All my customers are really nice people. I’ve never seen that before – 10 years and that was the first time,”

Amy’s Pizzeria was already a prominent business in the community. Since this incident, people from all over have traveled far and wide to visit Amy’s Pizzeria to show their support.

Bellew was asked about the charges brought against her. “I deserve to be in trouble for this … What I did was very wrong, and I don’t want people to think that it’s okay.” Bellew said.