by Jacob Richards
Just days after the election, a Grand Junction man went viral for having a racist meltdown in the local Five Guys burger franchise.
Robert Phillips is seen in the video yelling at two young hispanic employees: “Fuck you, Fucking beaners. Europeans fucking colonized this fucking country and you beaners are fucking invading it. Your fucking invaders! You should be fucking ashamed.” His wife Katherine filmed and nodded in agreement during the exchange.
“It started when the guy came in to pick up his order,” said Aiden Renova. “He asked my coworker, who did he vote for? My friend, having no reason to lie, or to expect the guy to freak out, said Kamala Harris. The guy responded by calling him a beaner. My coworker, justifiably, mad, said stuff back. and from there it escalated to a shouting match
“After that, they left, we apologized to all the customers and got back to work. We posted a video online and thought nothing more of it,” said Renova.
But, “The next day, we came in and my coworker had been fired,” Renova said. Phillips apparently had called the owner and complained that the viral video was defamation. During the yelling he “[said] he was going to get us fired,” said Revova.
“I quit before they could fire me because, quite frankly, that was insane,” said Renova. “Many of our other coworkers quit alongside us or put in two weeks, because what Five Guys did was arguably worse than what Katherine and Robert did,” he added.
Five Guys’s owner, Jeff Parker, provided The Daily Sentinel with a milquetoast statement: “We expect our employees to treat all customers with respect and expect our customers to treat our employees with respect as well.”
The Daily Sentinel also failed to name these racists amongst us, but for the sake of our communities’ safety, the Rev will.
“The guy didn’t realize that to place an order he had to tell us his name so we know his real name is Robert Phillips, and his wife’s name is Katherine Phillips,” said Renova.
Robert Taylor Phillips is the owner of Freedom Renovations LTD., and his wife, Katherine Phillips, is a pathologist with The Pathology Group, which works contracts through both Community Hospital and the Mesa County Coroner’s Office. The elected Mesa County Coroner, Dean Havlik, is Katherine Phillips’s boss at The Pathology Group.
What is scarier is this is not Robert Phillips’s first violent interaction with marginalized communities in the Grand Valley.
Back in the summer of 2022, Heidi Hess was shopping at the Clifton Ace Hardware, when “he asked what that tattoo was, and I told him it was to honor my life’s work and remind me to have the courage of [Ruth Bader Ginsberg],” said Hess.
Then “he went OFF on me in line telling me how f**s were unnatural and we were pedophiles who should all be ‘taken care of’.”
“After RBG died, I got a tattoo that is a dissent collar in the progressive pride flag colors, and it says ‘Ruthless’ on it,” Hess said.
He “settled down a bit and asked me what I thought I was accomplishing. I asked, ‘With the tattoo?’ He sneered, ‘Well yes.’ I said, ‘My first amendment rights of free speech,” said Hess.
“I recognized him on the video from Five Guys [incident],” said Hess.
Additionally, Phillips was arrested for assault in 2017.
Hess is the Western Slope field organizer for One Colorado, and has formerly served on the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. And they were kind enough to share some solid advice if you find yourself the victim or a bystander in a similar situation.
“First: BE SAFE. If you feel unsafe, you probably are unsafe. Get to safety. If that’s going to customer service, getting to an employee, calling 911—whatever it is—make yourself safe. DO NOT go off somewhere alone or exposed to get away from them. Go toward witnesses,” said Hess.
“If you feel safe, stand your ground in public places where other people are. Speak your truth, be calm and remember you do not need to match their unhinged outburst with your own. Your greater point is made by firmly speaking your own truth,” advised Hess.
“And most importantly: Be aware after a confrontation like this. Are you being followed when you leave the establishment? Take a circuitous route home and make sure. Stay on well-traveled streets. Today, right now, make a plan for where you will go if you are being followed. Staffed gas stations have video cameras. So do ER entrances and fire departments.”
According to Hess, there are also actions that bystanders can take. “There are the 5 D’s of bystander intervention: Distract, Direct, Delegate, Document and Delay.
Distract: Distract the perpetrator.
Direct: Be exceedingly direct. Emotions are high. If you want the victim to step away literally say: I think we need to go towards customer service. You come with me.
Delegate: Tell other bystanders what to do. Call for help, start recording the incident.
Document: Record, record, record.
Delay: Ask the victim, after the incident, what they need, how you can support them.”
More bystander intervention resources are available here.
We keep us safe!
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