National Clothesline

March 19 proved to be a particularly bad day for Pierre Frik, owner of three French Cleaners stores in California.

He was awakened at 4 a.m. with news from the fire department that his main French Cleaners plant in Modesto had burned down, resulting in half a million dollars worth of damages.

Later that morning, Frik discovered obscene graffiti that read “F--- the French” on the window of his store in Turlock. He also learned that somebody had shot pellet holes into a window at his store located in Ceres.

Police have classified each incident differently. Modesto police are still investigating the cause of the fire and have not labeled it as a crime. However, Turlock officers consider the obscene graffiti message a hate crime. The pellet gun incident at the Ceres store will be treated as an act of vandalism, according to Sgt. Howard Stevenson.

Frik has his own theory on what happened. He believes all three occurrences are a direct result of the anti-French sentiment that has cropped up across the country ever since France indicated its opposition to the U.S. in its bid for U.N. approval in the war against Iraq.

“It just escalated so fast,” said Frik. “For the past year, we haven’t had a problem.”

Now that he can no longer use his main plant, Frik has no choice but to service the dirty garments from his two satellite locations at a friend’s drycleaning facility.

Though he and his family are “economically OK” for the moment — the Modesto plant was insured — Frik says that the events have placed his business in a “state of emergency.”

On a personal level, the misfortunes have frustrated him, as well, leaving him “spiritually struggling” and wondering what to do next. Whether he will reopen the Modesto store remains unclear to him at this point.

“Hopefully, we’re going to recover,” he said. “We have a lot of sympathy from our customers. We have a good reputation.”

Frik, who points out that he is Assyrian, not French, has spent over 31 years in the cleaning industry. Long ago, he worked at a business that manufactured boilers and performed equipment installations in Lebanon before he fled the country in 1977 during its tumultuous civil war.

Once he immigrated to the U.S. and became an American citizen, he relied on his past knowledge and skills to earn a job as a textile equipment technician.

He worked his way up over time and eventually bought his three cleaning stores in 2002. He liked having the name French Cleaners because it meant his operation performed “delicate work.”

Now, Frik isn’t even sure if he will keep the company name.

Prior to the acts of vandalism on March 19, some people had waved obscene gestures at his delivery van, which is adorned with a “French Cleaners” sign on the side. He has considered renaming his business “Liberty Cleaners”.

A similar situation has already occurred in West Hartford, CT, where L. Phillip Coté changed the name of his drycleaning store from French Cleaners to Freedom Cleaners.

Coté told the Connecticut News that the decision was not made out of fear. “We want to offer support to the troops over there,” Cole said. “Whether or not the change is going to be permanent, it’s hard to say.”

Still, Frik doesn’t understand why the name of his store would provoke a negative response. “We are not involved in politics,” he said. “Things like that shouldn’t happen. I felt like I’ve been violated of my freedom itself.”