Hyatt Still Hosting Event for Hate Group Meeting “Peacefully and Respectfully”

As the conference for the nation’s largest anti-Muslim hate group approaches at the Hyatt in Crystal City, Virginia, news broke that one of the group’s rally participants, Alex Michael Ramos, was sentenced for beating an unarmed black man at the Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville. A video of the beating is available here (warning: graphic content.)

Ramos faces six years in prison for being one of a group of men who viciously beat DeAndre Harris, who was attempting to flee the violent mob in Charlottesville least year. Ramos participated in one of ACT for America’s “March Against Sharia” rallies  at an during Ramadan in 2017 and is seen here posing with a group of men who are in full tactical gear brandishing very large guns.

Despite months of calls to reject this conference, scheduled to take place on September 4-5, Hyatt has justified hosting it by saying that it accepts hate groups like ACT for America, as long as they conduct their business “respectfully and peacefully.”

This sentencing, compounded by ACT’s clear overlap with anti-government militia groups and neo-Nazis and profane rhetoric about Muslims, shows that ACT is neither peaceful nor respectful.

Scott Simpson, Public Advocacy Director of Muslim Advocates, responded:

Is Hyatt really going to invite this hate group to stay with its guests and its employees?

In a Facebook video following his attack on Deandre Harris in a Charlottesville parking garage, Ramos even bragged that he was ‘glad I stomped some a– out there…’

This is clearly not ‘peaceful’ or ‘respectful.’  Why is Hyatt opening their arms to a group like this?

Airbnb, Hilton, AccorHotels and InterContinental Hotels Group have already denied hate groups. Perhaps Hyatt sees a business model in becoming the last resort for racists.