Coffee Shop Says They Refuse to Serve Cops

Last Friday February 16th a police (OPD) entered our shop and was told by one of our worker-owners that “we have a policy of asking police to leave for the physical and emotional safety of our customers and ourselves.” Since then, cop supporters are trying to publicly shame us online with low reviews because this particular police visitor was Latino. He broadcasted to his network that he was “refused service” at a local business and now the rumblings are spreading. We know in our experience working on campaigns against police brutality that we are not alone saying that police presence compromises our feeling of physical & emotional safety.  There are those that do not share that sentiment – be it because they have a friend or relative who is a police, because they are white or have adopted the privileges whiteness affords, because they are home- or business- owning, or whatever the particular case may be. If they want to make claims about police being part of the community, or claims that race trumps the badge & gun when it comes to police, they must accept that the burden of proof for such a claim is on them. OPDs recent attempts to enlist officers of color and its short term touting of fewer officer involved shootings does not reverse or mend its history of corruption, mismanagement, and scandal, nor a legacy of blatant repression. The facts are that poc, women, and queer police are complicit in upholding the same law and order that routinely criminalizes and terrorizes black and brown and poor folks, especially youth, trans, and houseless folks. For these reasons and so many more, we need the support of the actual community to keep this place safe, not police.  Especially in an area faced by drug sales and abuse, homelessness, and toxic masculinity as we see here on this block. We want to put this out to our communities now, in case we end up facing backlash because as we know OPD, unlike the community, has tons of resources, many of which are poured into maintaining smooth public relations to uphold power. It will be no surprise if some of those resources are steered toward discrediting us for not inviting them in as part of the community.

A post shared by Hasta Muerte Coffee (@hastamuertecoffee) on Feb 22, 2018 at 7:47pm PST

Source – A controversy is brewing at a coffee shop in Oakland, where police officers are not welcome.

The business, called Hasta Muerte Coffee, will not serve officers in uniform and turned away an officer a few weeks ago. The shop is an employee-owned co-op.

Workers at Hasta Muerte did not respond to requests for comment on the policy to refuse service to police officers.

But on the shop’s Instagram account, there’s a photo posted with text that reads in Spanish: “Talk to your neighbors, not the police.” The post continues about an exchange with a uniformed police officer on Feb. 16, and very clearly it states: “We have a policy of asking police to leave for the physical and emotional safety of our customers and ourselves.” …

The sergeant who was turned away from the shop a few weeks ago said he was surprised but walked out without incident and without any coffee. He said he’s looking forward to talking with the shop owners to build a better relationship with them and the rest of the community.

Stupid me. I thought this was settled law in America. That we’d decided the issue of “Management reserves the right to refuse service to anyone” in favor of “No you fucking do not.” So that if some devout born again Evangelical declines to bake a wedding cake to a same-sex couple or a store run by Hasidic Jews bans women in tank tops from entering the premises, we tell them they bloody well can’t discriminate and bring the power of the law down on them. But as of right now, in Oakland that doesn’t apply if the person you’re denying the service to actually enforces the law. Often at the risk of his/her own life.

This is great news to hear on the day they’re burying a cop who was shot and killed while responding to a 911 call and being sent to the wrong address. Look, if you hate cops, that’s your right. But refusing to serve them isn’t. Not in any legal sense. If some car rental place gives side eye to a couple of young males of Middle Eastern descent while they’re trying to rent a moving truck, the Feds would be padlocking the place within minutes. But as far as we can tell, Hasta Muerte is serving up the French Vanillas and Salted Caramel Lattes as we speak. Which is insane to me. As insane as the idea that the sergeant who was told to piss off because he wasn’t welcome there would be “looking forward to talking” an building “better relationships” with the people who did so. But it shouldn’t surprise me that he’s a better man than I am, I suppose. Part of their job is taking shit from people instead of escalating it the way I would. All in the name of improving “the community.”

But just out of common sense, I don’t get why Hasta Muerta would do this. I had a friend who worked at a Dunkins after school and I remember making some lame joke that was worn out even then about how cops love donut shops. And she said they’re in there all the time because the owner gave them free coffee on the logic that it’s worth it just to have a steady police presence in a place that stays open late and is staffed by high school girls. Which makes a hell of a lot more sense than closing your doors to the very people you’re going to need most running a cash business in a city that is basically America’s asscrack.

So yeah, good business practices there, you employee-owned co-op. You might as well just change your name to Hasta ‘Bout to Be Robbed on a Daily Basis. Even if the authorities don’t shut you down, the lack of a police presence will.

@jerrythornton1