There are many challenges that come with being a business owner.

David Lawton, a local businessman from Madison County, Florida, believes that he might be facing business challenges above and beyond what his colleagues face because of the color of his skin.

Lawton recently went to his local city commission to air his grievances about how a code violation related to his Booty Warz event was handled.

According to Green Publishing, Lawton planned the event as a way to promote his event space. He printed up flyers featuring the sort of provocative images one would normally associate with an event called "Booty Warz," and also advertised that the Warz would feature “free food and alcohol with donation per drink."

Once City Manager Timothy R. Bennett became aware that alcohol would be served, he sent Lawton a code violation notice, which was delivered by a police officer. "An alcohol-related event into downtown Madison," Bennett said, breaks "city ordinance."

Lawton took exception to this.

“I almost believe it's because I'm an African American business owner," Lawton said, "I will be very blunt and straightforward about that … take it for what it's worth."

Lawton went on to say that he felt a phone call from Manager Bennett would have been more appropriate. He also complained that this incident marked the third time law enforcement came to his establishment during business hours.

The businessman did, however, admit that "we made a mistake" when it came to advertising alcohol for a "donation per drink." Still, he claimed that he couldn't be faulted, because “I did not know that was against the law in the state of Florida. The law works different where I'm from."

According to Lawton, whether or not he messed up on the alcohol front is less of an issue than something else that happened the night of his party. He claims that no fewer than seven police officers were on patrol in front of his event space that night.

“It was insulting and intimidating to me and my people who rode by,” said Lawton, who added that he even heard the police lieutenant even admit, “This is a little too much.”

Bennett, for his part, said that Lawton had it all wrong thinking that he and his partygoers were being racially profiled. 

"I wouldn't change a thing we did that Saturday night," Bennett said.

He added that the police presence was for the safety of all involved. "Just a couple of weeks ago, we had two stabbings. We've had four murders, possibly a fifth, in the last thirty months. That is the environment we are operating in.”

Too, Bennett denied Lawton's claims that seven police officers were at the scene, noting that he only saw three, in addition to the police chief and himself.

"We were prepared for the worst, yes," Bennett said, and further defended his actions, "You start bringing alcohol into a 'booty wars,' the first time in the City of Madison … there's no way we were not going to react."

Diplomatically, the city's mayor, Rayne Cooks, said in a statement: “A lot has been said; we have a lot to work on; I think this is a work in progress. We're going to correct it together as a community, as a city and as a business leader."