Readable version of emails communication with Alchemia staff

all_emails.txt

Dear Alchemia staff,
 
It's with profound disappointment I am writing you this e-mail to describe a racist situation towards my friends and I coming from your security guards on the night of Saturday 04/01/2015 to Sunday 05/01/2015.
 
I am a foreigner which regularly visits Krakow as I am always in love with this city and its people. Having coming here for so many years, I ended up making many local friends and one of our favourite spots is Alchemia in Plac Nowy.
 
Unfortunately yesterday an event left me shocked and very sad. Whilst having a good time with my friends, having a chat and laughs, two of your hired security staff, sitting on a table in the corner, began to shout racist comments and gestures against our table. It was not a joke - the prejudice was towards us, a group of foreigners and locals, and it was deliberate. We could hear sounds and gestures that imitated a monkey as well as sayings like "kurwa malpa", which according to our local friends, meant "fucking monkeys".
 
As an esteemed customer of your bar, I believe such behaviour does not share the values of Alchemia, its staff and owners. In a place like Kazimierz where the vast majority of the clients of these bars are foreigners, it's completely unacceptable to have racist security staff working in any of them.
 
Needless to say, we left the bar shortly after this situation and went somewhere else in Plac Nowy to avoid further frustration and possible clash with your security guards. It's also easy to tell by now we are not planning to come back to Alchemia in a long time, or at least until we have the guarantee that those security guards are no longer working there, because as I said before, none of us want to believe these are the values shared by Alchemia.
 
If you have any further questions and clarifications about the situation, do not hesitate in contacting me.
 
--
Julio Cesar Fort

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Sorry the dates were Friday 02/01/2015 to Saturday 03/01/2015.

--
Julio Cesar Fort

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Dear Julio,
 
I’m one of the managers of Alchemia ( specialy of concerts and events) in charge of this email address.
 
Sorry for my English if it’s not clear enough.
 
I’ve been trying to find out  what actually happened that night, so if you’re still in Cracow, why don’t you come to Alchemia on Monday for example to make things clear?
 
I’d like to really find out what happened, specially that I’ve been working in this place for 14 years now, and nothing like that ever happened, the security guys you mentioned have been working in the place also more than 10 years and I know them quite well.
 
I’d like to claim that racism, homophoby and other kinds of discrimination were always against our rules and against the spirit of the place. We have friends and cooperate with people from around the world for all this years.
 
We do not accept racist or extreme behavours and take this case very seriously. We don’t hire people from NOP or any racist/homophobic/extreme organizations.
 
Unfortunately this kind of comments were coused by your post on our facebook public domain and I personally find them at least unfair.
 
I regret you didn’t just  call a manager of bar that night, who was present there or any other manager next day.
 
I would really appreciate if our meeting would be possible very soon.
 
Kind regards

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Dear manager (you haven't written your name in the previous message),

At the moment I am not in Krakow and unfortunately I will probably not be back until the middle of 2015.

As soon as I get access to a computer I will write you an email explaining the entire situation in order to clarify it in its entirety.

Just to have it clear one more time, I like Alchemia very much but that situation left us all very uncomfortable up to the point we decided to leave shortly after it.
There were two men sitting at a table in the entrance that shouted these racist chants at us. Sometime later one of the men grabbed a person, that seemed to be one of the beggars of Kazimierz, with a chokehold, dragged him out of the bar and came back to his table. A regular customer would *never* do this, hence my belief is that this person, sitting at the same table where the verbal offenses came from, is a bouncer of the club.

Unfortunately I am in another city in Poland and cant attend to any meeting with you in Krakow. Hope this situation gets sorted out in the best way possible. I am happy to post again on social media about your prompt addresing of the issue, if this helps.

Cheers,
--
Julio Cesar Fort

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For the sake of transparency, just as courtesy I am informing you a
journalist from Gazeta Wyborzca named Alexander tried to contact me today
in the morning. I refused to speak with him about what happened until the
matter is solved privately.

--
Julio Cesar Fort

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Dear Julio,
 My name is Marcin and as I said I’m in charge of concerts and events mainly.
 It is a pity we can’t meet and discuss now all the things that happened personally, maybe soon.
 I also like Alchemia and working here, spent a lot of time here, drinking with many people. I work on daily bases with many people from different countries. I also travelled to many countries around the world, so I am I hope very open minded for  many things and problems.
 
Coming back to the matter…
 
I’d like to describe to you what I’ve managed to research about the Friday night by now.
 
I talked to a few people, bartenders, manager of the bar present there that night and also security guys.
 
I’d like to mention that all the stuff on their shift is sober.
 
So, the night was not very intense as usual Friday, so pretty quiet as for Friday night. There were a few customers there around mentioned time. There were two guys by the table in front of the bar, there was a group of people by the long table on the right side of the bar (right hand side when you look from the bar). The security guys by the table in the corner by the entrance plus two guys (customers)in the opposite corner by the entrance who were also dressed in black, looking a bit like typical security guys.
 
The stuff (bartenders) didn’t put much attention the situation in the room because there was nothing unusual there happening.
 
Only the group of people by the long table was loud (not aggressive, but just very loud). Just having fun in a way that was a little bit too loud. In normal procedure the security or bartenders were allowed to ask this people to behave a bit more quiet, what actually happened. The security guy and also one of bartenders asked for this a few times. At some point some people of the group by the long table fired the cigarettes , what is prohibited in this room of Alchemia. And again once a bartender and a couple of times the security guy asked for not doing this. There was for sure a polish girl among them who started to discuss with the security guy, not willing to agree with him and not wanting to stop smoking in that room.
 
And now, let’s say something could happened….but again nobody of stuff noticed anyone shouting at another and behaving with strange gestures imitating monkey. Considering regular behaviour of our security guys, it doesn’t seem probable for them to behave this way. And that’s what they say.
As I said before, these guys have been working with us for over 10 years, and the place is being on daily basis visited by many different foreigners. They weren’t born yesterday, if I can say that way. It is just unlikely to them.
 
In the other hand we all know that this profession is (and has to be) specific and only kind of people are able to do this kind of job, isn’t it. It is hard work under the pressure, sometimes very unpleasant, late at night, facing different behaviours.
 
You maybe realize, that different kind of conflicts happen in such places quite often. Some people don’t like the taste of wine, some people don’t agree with being kicked out, because they are drunken (happens), some people are not let in, etc..etc.  But always, everyone can make a complain to a manager immediately or next day.
 
Why didn’t it happen that night?
 
Writing all of this I’m trying to get to some objective point of view. I consider all of us being involved in this situation as a reasonable people. We all know, that being out in places like this, drinking alcohol, we sometimes we do not behave perfect way, sometimes we do not understand what is really happening around us. We are in a group, having fun, don’t really care of other things. As a reasonable people we can imagine the outside point of view of such a situation, maybe we would see things differently or behave differently otherwise.
 
And now I want to explain one more very important thing that probably is not obvious for you. I need to explain it in order to reach the objective as much as I can.
 
The word małpa (monkey) can have many usage in polish language, also offensive meanings.
First of all and the most often is used to offend a woman -  ‘’stupid monkey’’, ’’don’t be a monkey’’, specially that the monkey is feminine noun in polish
Also you can use it in different ways for example ‘’don’t shout like you’re monkey’’ (nie drzyj się jak małpa)
 
Using the word, it could have also a racist connotations, but it is not really often used in such a context in Poland. Up to my knowledge it is much more in other countries.
 
Anyway I’m trying to understand what really happened that night.
 
I’d like to ask you a few things about that night.
 
Where were you sitting that night? Were you actually by the long table?
Which exactly table in the corner you meant?
Do you remember the other two guys sitting in the corner by the entrance?
Did you personally heard the ‘’racist’’ words?
Do you speak Polish?
Did someone translate it for you?
Who did translate it, if translated?
Are you sure the translation was correct and in the right context?
Do you know the polish girl described there smoking?   I’d like to talk to her.
 
I believe we can explain all the circumstances of the unfortunate night. Please, tell me what you think and answer the questions.
As you can see we’re keeping it transparent with all respect.
 
I’m a bit down as well that all of this came to such a form (internet, facebook) what makes pretty damage in 15 years work of all of us in Alchemia, even if what happened can be not very obvious.
I’m looking for your answere.
 
Kind regards, Marcin

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Two friends that were present at the same table as I was that night will
try to show up to have a chat with you in person tonight.

We were not in the long table where a cigarette was lit - in fact, no one
in our group smokes.

--
Julio Cesar Fort

==========================================================================

Dear Julio,

 

I wasn't in Alchemia yesterday and I am not too often there in these days having a little break and trying to rest a bit after exhausting three months of work.

 

They've got my phone number, so when they call me, we will arrange
a meeting.

 

But first of all I would love to meet with you instead, as the author of the text in Alchemia's facebook page.

 

I asked you for answering a few questions according to your last sentence

 

If you have any further questions and clarifications about the situation, do not hesitate in contacting me.

  

So, please, answer the questions from previous email, and also

-   Why didn't you make complain immediately after it happened to the manager who was present there that night? 

 

-       Where were you sitting that night? Which room and which table?

 

-       Where did the situation (described by you) happened? (your table, toilets, bar, entrance?)

 

-       How many people were in group with you?

 

-       How many of them were foreigners and how many locals?

 

-       By locals you mean polish people? 

 

 

I'd love to get some clear picture of the situation from you. 

 

 

Thank you and kind regards

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Hi Marcin,

Unfortunately I believe there won't be any chance we'll meet. I'm leaving
the city tomorrow and not coming back to Krakow in at least 6 months, when
I have holidays again. I will keep my friends in the loop but they were
there with me and will be able to depict the situation with the accuracy
required to investigate the facts.


-   Why didn't you make complain immediately after it happened to the
manager who was present there that night?

The situation was so uncomfortable my friends left the bar straight away. I
stayed a bit more and saw the beggar being dragged out, hence I'm sure the
people responsible for the insults were bouncers.


-       Where were you sitting that night? Which room and which
table?

The main room when you enter the bar. Earlier in the night we were sat on
the table right on the left, but it was small and when the Polish girl
arrived, shortly after that we changed to the table near the bar on the
right side, when this happened. This table is opposite to the long table
where people were smoking and the security guard apparently had a problem
with. We do not know anyone on that table, they were not related to us.

-       How many people were in group with you?

We were five people at the time. Two Brazilians living here for 2 and 3
years, me (Brazilian, tourist), and Argentinian and this Polish girl
friends with the Brazilians.

-       By locals you mean polish people?


Yes.


My friends will try to reach you on Wednesday. I am aware one of my friends
was given your number yesterday when they went to Alchemia looking for you.

Cheers,

--
Julio Cesar Fort

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