Starbucks Tempe, AZ
So I haven't seen many posts about what happened here in Arizona. If you haven't heard about it, a barista at Starbucks in Tempe Arizona was approached by a customer and talk her that the police officers (there were six (6)), who were all in uniform made the customer uncomfortable. So the barista approached the officers and asked them to move out of eyesight OR to leave so the customer feels safe. The officers left and posted about their experiences on Twitter. Now keep in mind that in the eyes of Arizona this is perfectly legal. You have the right as an employee to refuse service to anyone, and I am sure this falls underneath that law. Not to mention according to the first article listed down bellow The barista knew the officers were regular customers, tried explaining that to the customer and then talked to the six (6) police officers, very politely. Now I applaud the way that Starbucks is handling this. They issued an apology to the Tempe police department (an unnecessary one if you ask me) and they wanted to sit down and talk about how they could make things better. The reason I am writing this post is to show how immaturely the Tempe police department acted.
One this twitter post in itself is contradictory. The association said that they “asked” but then tagged it ZeroRespect. I don’t know about you but asking seems respectful. The barista did not say “Get out of the store you are making my other customers uncomfortable” she asked them politely to EITHER leave OR move out of eyesight of the customer. Also using the fourth (4th) of July and that some of the police officers were veterans as an excuse for why they shouldn’t have been kicked out has nothing to do with what happened. The barista did not kick them out because they were veterans, also how would they know that some of the police officers were veterans, the barista asked them to leave or move because they were making a customer uncomfortable.
One of the police officers said something along the lines of 'I can believe that we were discriminated against just for your job' and all I could think was wow yeah, like sex workers and construction workers and fast-food workers. these people are discriminated against every day for their jobs.
One thing that definitely needs to be brought up in this conversation is why the customer would feel unsafe. I would have to say the number of officers involved shootings. Like the officer who killed a fourteen (14) year old boy. Or the officer who shot a pregnant woman who had her three (3) kids and fiance. The trust in police has been declining in Arizona for a long time and the police department has done nothing to try and gain that trust back. They think that they deserve it when in reality they need to work for it.
I personally think the barista was right in this situation. They were not rude or malicious to the police officers. They asked them politely to either leave or move because they made one of the customers uncomfortable. The Barista tried their best to handle a tough situation and I don't think they should be faulted. I also do not think the Tempe police department handled this as well as they could have.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/07/07/barista-asked-police-leave-because-guest-felt-uncomfortable-starbucks-has-apologized/?utm_term=.3621efecbd51
