Starbucks Apologizes After 6 Cops Were Kicked Out Because a Customer Didn't 'Feel Safe'

Source – Starbucks Corp. apologized to the Tempe Police Department in Arizona after six officers were asked to leave a Tempe coffee shop on Independence Day.

The Tempe Officers Association said in a statement that six of its officers stopped by a Starbucks coffee shop in Tempe for coffee on July Fourth.

The group paid for their drinks and stood together having coffee, when they were approached by a barista who informed them that a customer “did not feel safe” due to their presence.

The barista asked the officers to “move out of the customer’s line of sight or leave.” Ultimately, the officers left the store disappointed.

“This treatment of public safety workers could not be more disheartening. While the barista was polite, making such a request at all was offensive. Unfortunately, such treatment has become all too common in 2019,” the officers association said. …

In a statement, Rossann Williams, executive vice president and president of U.S. Retail said that the police officers should have been welcomed and treated with dignity and the utmost respect by the company’s employees. Instead, they were made to feel unwelcome and disrespected, which was “completely unacceptable.”

“What occurred in our store on July 4 is never the experience your officers or any customer should have, and at Starbucks, we are already taking the necessary steps to ensure this doesn’t happen again in the future,” Williams said.

Full disclosure: This weekend I was out having beers at a brew pub (as hard as it may be, try to imagine me doing such a thing) with some people when the original story popped up on my phone as a news alert. And I was incredulous. So I read the headline to the guy next to me. “Starbucks Asks Police Officers to Leave Because a Customer ‘Did Not Feel Safe.'” And his immediate response was, “I don’t blame the customer.” So I did what you do in 2019. I didn’t engage. I changed the subject. Promised myself never to bring up current events in a social setting ever again. And wept into my beer for my country.

I’ll take Starbucks at their word that they wanted no part of this and are genuinely sorry one of their own handled it this way. And I respect the hell out of the police union for letting the barista off the hook for at least being “polite” about it. I don’t know how exactly you can politely tell someone to get the fuck out because someone can’t stand the sight of them.

But I guess she managed to slip her request through that narrow opening. Of course it if were up to me and a customer comes to you with a complaint like that, the response should be to politely explain to them, “If you’re afraid of the sight of police officers, then perhaps a coffee shop is not the place for you.” But it’s not up to me.

My question for everyone then is, when last year Starbucks – one of the biggest foodservice chains on Earth – shut down nationwide for part of an entire day to do mandatory diversity training, what did they say about how to handle it when Customer A is offended by the existence of Customer B?

To put it differently, is there any other subset of the population you can get kicked out of a place because their existence offends you? So much so that they’re asked to step out of your line of sight? What if instead of duly sworn members of law enforcement, they were, … oh, let’s say, Hasidic Jews. Or Kenyans. Communists. Mimes. Handicapped. Morbidly obese. Old people. Dutch. Juggalos. Ugly. Spanish speaking. Magician’s assistants. Korean. People with neck tats, piercings and gauge earrings. Body builders. LGBTQ. Dickensian street urchins. ComicCon fans in Sci-Fi costumes. Red Sox fans. Fill in your own. Name anyone you cant think of at random. And this doesn’t happen to them. Just to the police.

There are dark-hearted, destined-for-Hell shitshows among us who didn’t get enough love growing up who can’t be comfortable around someone with Downs Syndrome. Would anybody ask a group of Special Needs adults to “move out of the customers line of sight or leave”? Politely? Or would they simply look at the customer in shock and tell them to go piss up a rope, take their Macchiato business elsewhere and never darken this shop’s door again?

My sister used to date a guy who took her out to the racetrack for dinner in the dining room and a little wagering one time. And as soon as they walked in, he wanted to leave because he saw a Little Person, and in his particular brand of gambling, that was considered bad luck. So let’s say he took her to Starbucks and saw Peter Dinklage there. Would the barista politely tell Tyrion Lannister to move because Jerry Thornton’s sister’s date thinks looking at him is a jinx? And if so, how many millions would Miles Finch collect in that out-of-court settlement? I’m guessing 10 million and fuck you dollars.

But that’s America in 2019. Where we live under a Tyranny of the One that is of our own making. Where we’re trying so hard to be sensitive to everyone’s feelings that we’ve lost all rationality. We’ve willingly disarmed ourselves of our common sense, kicking it out the door in front of us while we surrender quietly, with our hands in the air. And abandoned one of the most useful tools we ever invented: The ability to tell someone “What you’re asking for is completely unreasonable, so NO.” And once we’ve lost these things, I don’t see how we ever get them back.

My only remaining question is this: If someone holds up the Starbucks in Tempe, AZ or grabs the tip jar and runs out the door, who do the baristas call for help? Maybe that customer who didn’t “feel safe” will track down the perp and make an arrest.