Grand-slam breakfast?

• Author: Guillermo, Emil
• Position: 8 Syracuse, NY, minority diners turned away at Denny's

Months after settling two major discrimination complaints, Denny's has more trouble brewing with a new Justice Department investigation. In April, a group of Asian Americans were denied service in a Syracuse restaurant, and then brutally beaten in the parking lot.

Early one morning, eight Syracuse University students -- seven of them Asian Americans, including three Japanese nationals, and one Caucasian student -- entered an off-campus Denny's and waited to be served. They waited. And waited.

"There were empty tables. And several whites who came later were seated ahead of them," says Elizabeth Ou Yang, an attorney with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which is representing the students in both a criminal complaint and a possible federal civil suit against Denny's.

When the students complained, they were asked to leave. Two Denny's security guards escorted them. Once outside, Ou Yang says, one of the guards pushed the students. The students allege that a group of twenty white males came out of the restaurant, shouting racial epithets and looking for a fight.

Yuya Hasegawa, one of the international Japanese students, said he was attacked first. "I couldn't eat where I wanted to. I was beaten by whoever wanted to beat me. I am not welcome here," he said in a statement prepared by his attorneys.

Derrick Lizardo, a Filipino American student, came to Hasegawa's aid and was beaten unconscious. "I was never made to feel so helpless and so different in my entire life," he stated.

Yoshika Kusada, a Japanese American woman, also claims to have been knocked unconscious.

The two security guards, off-duty Onondaga County sheriff's deputies, did not intervene. They called for police backup instead. But Ou Yang claims their actions sparked the incident. "They needlessly pushed the Asian students outside, and caused others to come see what was going on," says Ou Yang.

The students have filed criminal charges with the Syracuse District Attorney's office. So far, the city has made no arrests. "If an arrest is not made shortly," Ou Yang said, "it will put doubt in the community's mind as to whether or not the D.A.'s office is vigorously investigating this case."

The Denny's franchise owner, Charles Davis, is African American. Davis says Denny's has become an easy target for discrimination...