Corner Pub Green Hills Faces Backlash Over Social Media Posts Attributed to Owner

Corner Pub Green Hills owner Jeremy Palmer was widely called out across social media platforms last week, when a long thread of now-deleted racist, anti-LGBT tweets surfaced following the protests following the police killing of George Floyd. The remarks and resulting controversy have led to the dissolving of his business partnership, the closing of Corner Pub, and an apology from Palmer.

Soon after last weekend’s protests in Nashville, the owner responded to tweets from the (formerly public) bar’s Twitter account in ways that were easily interpreted by many as encouraging violence against protesters. The Corner Pub Green Hills Twitter account has since been switched to private, and Facebook posts deleted, but reader-submitted screenshots and an imgur thread show tweets from at least early May.

A number of volatile and threatening tweet replies from the @CornerPubGH account to public figures from Catholic theologian James Martin, SJ to Lebron James referred to looters as “animals,” plus made other incendiary and threatening remarks, such as two occasions where the account said the writer would run over rioters with his vehicle.

In response to the tweets, Jeff Estepp (50 percent owner of Corner Pub at the Nations) posted that he was dissolving his partnership with Palmer and closing the Nation location of Corner Pub immediately. The statement read that he met with Palmer as soon as he learned of the comments. Estepp emphasizes that he does not condone his former partner’s actions, and made the call to close the Nations location immediately.

Palmer later posted a statement on the same Twitter account, apologizing for his behavior. “We welcome everyone at our family businesses. The last few weeks and months have been more than stressful, and my frustration came out on my social media. For that I am sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Screenshot submitted

On June 2, Nashville Banner editor Steve Cavendish called the business out on Twitter for these posts, writing, “Brand Destruction 101: Using a local restaurant’s social media account to tell a priest to chill out about the President’s photo op and encourage people to run over protesters. Good luck, Corner Pub.”

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