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MP Özlem Cekic “denied access” to event
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November 2nd, 2014
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This article is more than 11 years old.
Cekic and family decide to leave evening event before even entering
SF member of parliament Özlem Cekic took to Facebook claiming she and her family were humiliated when they tried to attend the Outlet Fair at the Bella Center on Saturday night.
The incident began when Cekic stood in line with her tickets while waiting for her husband to return from their vehicle, she explains.
“The guard asked me to get back in line since I was blocking the entrance,” she writes. “I turned around and saw there was no queue behind me.”
She continues to explain “kindly” that she was waiting for her husband, had the tickets and offered to move to the side, at which point the guard attempted to take hold of her arm.
Once her husband returned matters escalated; they were rudely denied access and were told the police would be called if they didn’t go home. Cekic writes she would have stayed, “but for the sake of the children, we chose instead to go home”.
Two sides to the story
According to some eyewitnesses, they saw a different story unfold.
“It certainly is her own fault that she got the treatment she received,” Mathias Johansen, an eyewtiness to the incident, tells TV2. “The guard almost begged her to go inside so she did not stand in the way of other guests.”
Johansen continues that as she was getting more “excited” the queue had stopped and people could not get in to the venue.
As of this writing, Cekic’s Facebook post has over 2,500 comments some of which corroborate Johansen’s account while others are calling this an act of racism and intolerance.
Cekic has not commented further on the incident.
However, she did note in her post that when she contacted the Bella Center they were “kind and respectful” and emphasized that the guards were hired and the responsibility of the Outlet Fair organizers.
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