California Coffee Shop Doubles Down On Refusing Service To Cops – IOTW Report

California Coffee Shop Doubles Down On Refusing Service To Cops

DC: A California coffee shop doubled down on its refusal to serve police officers, claiming cops threaten their “physical and emotional safety.”

Hasta Muerte Coffee owners refused service to a Latino police sergeant March 8 and are now defending that decision despite growing outrage, KTVU reported. The shop is a worker-owned collective with a mural criticizing police shootings and the militarization of law enforcement. Oakland’s police union wrote a letter to the owners, complaining about the measure. A local city councilman said while he disagrees with the policy, there aren’t any plans to stop it.

“We know in our experience working on campaigns against police brutality that we are not alone saying that police presence compromises our feelings of physical & emotional safety,” Hasta Muerte Coffee posted on its Instagram page. “The facts are that poc [people of color], 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.”

Officers were disappointed but would respect their policy, Oakland Police Department replied, according to the New York Daily News. Some Oakland residents were less forgiving.

“I don’t think it’s fair — they should [serve cops],” Oakland resident Mildred Jelks told KTVU. “They’re protecting them. If somebody breaks in there, who are they gonna call? The police.”  more here

33 Comments on California Coffee Shop Doubles Down On Refusing Service To Cops

  1. It should be ingrained in “law” that a business has the unalienable right to refuse to serve any-fucking-one on any, or no grounds, whatsoever.

    Who owns the business? The business owner or the State?

    Some enterprising entrepreneur should open the “Cops’ Coffee Shoppe” and offer donuts (to uniformed officers) for free – make a killing.

    izlamo delenda est …

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  2. No servee — no protectee!!!

    Two things this week already:

    1) School shootings in NYC schools? (When)
    2) When will this coffee shop be robbed? They are already scared of big bad guys with guns, right?

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  3. I wonder how long it will take before they are robbed at gunpoint?
    That crime will probably not be high on the priority list.
    What next, refusing firemen and ambulance personnel?

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  4. Interesting in that this coffee shop mentions poor folks, especially youths, as being targets for police. I’ve always seen the police harassment and targeting argument as being for black and brown people.

    It’s been some time since I was a late teen or early 20’s something. I’m cracker through and through, but I recall vividly being a target for suburban police. No, I’m not goiing to jump on the hate the cops bandwagon. However, adding that poor youths are also police targets may serve to strengthen the argument against police. Age related targeting has no racial boundaries. Yes, in my younger years I participated in more activities that helped cause police encounters, for instance having a bonfire and drinking beer underage. But the pressure of that targeting was present even though nothing illegal was occurring, for instance picking a friend up after his shift at the mall. No, we’re not buying or selling drugs, buddy just needed a ride home, now look at the mess you made of my car. I got “checked out” numerous times as a kid making little money to afford a nice car in the wealthy suburbs.

  5. Maybe this coffee shop doesn’t have any dogs that they need shot, any crime tape they need strung, or any reports written. The cops do not exist to protect the citizens. Their only purpose is to protect the state and to take assets from the citizens.

  6. @Tim. “Some enterprising entrepreneur should open the “Cops’ Coffee Shoppe” and offer donuts (to uniformed officers) for free – make a killing.”

    Right next door!

    @organgrinder-“But if they were refusing service to an illegal or black it would go nuclear. It makes as much sense as everything else they do.”

    Or gay or trans or animal ‘lover’, etc.

  7. Let’s face it, the truth is that the cops if called upon would protect the people in that coffee shop in spite of the douchebaggery by the owners because that’s what LEO’s are supposed to do.

    What should happen, is that the clientele should BOYCOTT the place until they go out-of-business in support of the police.

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  8. “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone”

    Anyone else remember those signs? I used to see them everywhere in my youth. Havnt seen them in years now.

  9. I wonder what their insurance agentcompany will say about this. The more public they are the more they risk robbery or vandalism and their insurers might well cancel their policy. In any event I still bet that in the event of a problem the store will still call the cops and the cops.

  10. “911, what is your emergency?”
    “I’m at Hasta Muerte coffee shop and we are being robbed right now.”
    “Oh, sorry, our officers aren’t allowed in there”…click

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  11. @Some, hate to break it to you, hipsters no longer use cash, nothing to stuff in a bag, I had one use a card to buy an apple and Diet Coke in front of me.
    If I don’t have $200 in my pocket, I don’t have my pants on.
    Is that an invitation to be robbed, well, “do you feel lucky, punk?”

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  12. Probably would be a great place to stage an armed robbery about now.

    EDIT: OK, from reading the previous posts, I see this is not a novel idea. And if there’s no cash, you could always just burn it. I like a really dark roast myself.

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  13. As noted above, they hate the police. I suspect they would hate me as a white male Christian.

    They don’t care about customers. I would not take the chance that they did not piss in my coffee.

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