After placing their orders, a group of police officers and veterans were just about to enjoy their coffee at a local Starbucks. However, before they could even sit down, an employee approached and requested that they leave because of a customer’s strange complaint.
At a Starbucks location in Tempe Arizona, feelings are being honored over facts and logic. Incredibly, the employees of this coffee shop believe that feeling offended at the moment validates stripping others of their rights. Disturbingly, they have no idea how dangerous this belief is.
Prior to their shift beginning, a group of police officers arrived at the Starbucks coffee shop. As they collected the brew, they were unexpectedly approached by a barista, who appeared to have a concerned look about them. It was then that they realized they were no longer welcome.
According to FOX News, a group of five police officers, several of whom are veterans, were kicked out of a Starbucks cafe because a customer complained that they “did not feel safe” with cops present. Unbelievably, the officers were given two options by the barista — either move out of the line of sight of the offended customer or leave.
Although the officers had just purchased their drinks and were standing near the front of the store, they chose to walk out, feeling unwelcome and demonized. Disturbingly, the incident once again showcases that ostracizing and discriminating against police officers have become socially acceptable in recent years.
President of the police union Sgt. Robert Ferraro confirmed that such incidents have been occurring more often as anti-police propaganda seeps into the mainstream media. Unfortunately, individuals believe they should be able to exclude officers from society but also hypocritically expect them to risk their lives and come to their rescue at the drop of a hat.
“It’s become accepted to not trust or to see police and think that we’re not here to serve you, and again, it goes back to — we take great pride of the level of customer service we provide to citizens, and to be looked at as feeling unsafe when you have law enforcement around you is somewhat perplexing to me,” Ferraro told the station in a phone interview.
Unsurprisingly, a huge backlash ensued once the public learned of the treatment of the police officers. It was only after suffering nationwide outrage that Starbucks decided to address the issue.
“We have a deep respect for the Tempe Police and their service to the community,” spokesman Reggie Borges said. “We’ve reached out to the Tempe Police Department and Tempe Officers Association to better understand what happened and apologize. We want everyone in our stores to feel welcomed and the incident described is not indicative of what we want any of our customers to feel in our stores.”
Borges explained that Starbucks wants everyone to feel comfortable in their stores, including officers of the law. However, he didn’t say whether the employee in question would face disciplinary measures or re-education. In 2018, Starbucks closed nearly 8,000 locations to conduct “racial bias training” after two black customers accused a manager of racism.
Starbucks confirmed that Executive V.P. and President of U.S. retail Rossann Williams would meet with Tempe Chief of Police Sylvia Moir to discuss the incident. Williams agreed that the employee was wrong to ask the officers to move or leave and apologized for the handling of the situation.
“When those officers entered the store and a customer raised a concern over their presence, they should have been welcomed and treated with dignity and the utmost respect by our partners (employees). Instead, they were made to feel unwelcome and disrespected, which is completely unacceptable,” Williams wrote.
The Tempe Police Department is currently working with Starbucks to remedy the situation. However, it seems as though the coffee corporation didn’t respond until they saw the major backlash that arose, leaving some to feel as though they’re only trying to do damage control.
Police officers are constantly being berated and ostracized all while still risking their lives to serve their community. Sadly, the misguided and irrational feelings of a certain few are being allowed mob rule, forcing the people behind the uniforms to be cast as the enemy.
