‘Biblical Swarm of Insects’ Unleashed on Burger Chain

Then locusts came from the smoke and descended on the earth, and they were given power to sting like scorpions. (Revelation 9:3)

We have no idea if this is the exact Bible verse that London activists had in mind when they threw 8,000 locust, 2,000 crickets, and 4,000 cockroaches into a restaurant, but it certainly left a sting for the Byron burger chain.

And while deploying locusts as punishment is usually God's call, the London Black Revolutionaries and Malcolm X Movement, two radical social activist groups, sought to exact revenge with what they called a "biblical swarm of insects."

According to Huck magazine, the basis of the attack was Byron recently duping 35 migrant workers from Albania, Brazil, Egypt, and Nepal in a pretty elaborate sting. Employees were told to come in for burger-cooking courses, but instead they were greeted by immigration officials, "hauled off," and deported.

But why locusts and cockroaches, you ask? Well, as powerful as biblical imagery can be, the reasoning here appears to be far more contemporary, with London Black Revs claiming that their attack was a reminder of how brutal life can be for migrant workers arriving in Europe. With the rise of anti-immigration sentiment in the UK, many media have been referring to migrants as "cockroaches."

Activists released thousands of bugs in a busy London restaurant last night. https://t.co/rSbATXfU9F #boycottbyron pic.twitter.com/ITD3bqhQnF

— HUCK (@HUCKmagazine) July 30, 2016

"We have released many thousands of live cockroaches, locusts, and crickets into these restaurants," London Black Revs wrote in a press release. "We must defend these people and their families from such dehumanised treatment."

According the Huck, the scene at the restaurant descended into "chaos," with staff surely going to spend the night "chasing crickets and picking cockroaches out the red-onion relish." And while they might have gotten their point across symbolically, this bug attack was ultimately be cleaned up by restaurant workers, not the suits at corporate who would have set up the anti-migrant sting.

In other words, it's still restaurant workers who got fucked here.