Tempe Police Officers Asked To Leave Starbucks Because They Made a Customer Feel Unsafe

07 July 2019, 11:06 AM

That’s the sensational headline. They were also given the alternative of getting out of the customer’s line of sight.

https://www.businessinsider.co...ona-starbucks-2019-7

07 July 2019, 11:43 AM

jodi

We have lost our minds.

07 July 2019, 11:57 AM

Piano*Dad

One wonders if the police will slow walk the next call from that Starbucks ...

Would be unprofessional, of course ...

07 July 2019, 12:22 PM

Nina

I feel sorry for the poor barista, who was placed in a hard situation by the snowflake customer. It sounds like everyone did the best they could given the circumstances.

I also wonder about the mindset of the police officers organization that thought the right course was to post this to social media....

07 July 2019, 01:20 PM

Mikhailoh

Why should anybody be asked to move for that reason? Utterly ridiculous.

07 July 2019, 01:22 PM

wtg

quote:
Originally posted by jodi:
We have lost our minds.

07 July 2019, 01:27 PM

QuirtEvans

quote:
Originally posted by Mikhailoh:
Why should anybody be asked to move for that reason? Utterly ridiculous.

"Unsafe" is the latest inarguable buzzword. How can you argue that someone should have to feel unsafe?

Kind of like the way schools use "safety" as a bulletproof excuse for anything they want to do.

07 July 2019, 02:08 PM

Nina

I am very uncomfortable with this industry of outrage that we seem to be building via social media. For the record, I don't think the police did anything wrong. I think the person who felt "unsafe" needed to consider other alternatives. One that comes immediately to mind is to just go over and say hi to the cops. Or just leave. Life is full of minor annoyances. Not everything requires a full-scale reaction. I also feel like the cops who posted this to social media should have just sat on their hands. Outrage, Inc. is alive and well.

07 July 2019, 02:17 PM

Cindysphinx

I can only think of one scenario where asking the officers to leave might be legitimate.

In poorly run police departments, there can be a culture of retaliation against citizens who file complaints. An officer does something, you complain, and the next thing you know you are being followed around by the officer's friends (or the officer herself) for no reason. This extra police scrutiny is calculated to be intimidating, hopefully enough to get the person to drop the complaint. This sort of thing can also happen if a spouse has a domestic violence incident with an officer or applies for a temporary restraining order -- the officer's friends decide to subtly send a message to that spouse. Sadly, it happens.

If that were the case -- if the customer walked up to the barista and said she had filed a complaint or TRO and now these officers were following her -- then they could legitimately be asked to leave.

That is the only sensible possible explanation for this I can come up with.

07 July 2019, 02:20 PM

piqué

quote:
. The Tempe Officers Association claims "such treatment has become all too common in 2019"

Yes, well. Maybe the police should change some of their practices and then the public might feel safer when they are around instead of the opposite.

07 July 2019, 02:23 PM

piqué

quote:
Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
I can only think of one scenario where asking the officers to leave might be legitimate.

In poorly run police departments, there can be a culture of retaliation against citizens who file complaints. An officer does something, you complain, and the next thing you know you are being followed around by the officer's friends (or the officer herself) for no reason. This extra police scrutiny is calculated to be intimidating, hopefully enough to get the person to drop the complaint. This sort of thing can also happen if a spouse has a domestic violence incident with an officer or applies for a temporary restraining order -- the officer's friends decide to subtly send a message to that spouse. Sadly, it happens.

If that were the case -- if the customer walked up to the barista and said she had filed a complaint or TRO and now these officers were following her -- then they could legitimately be asked to leave.

That is the only sensible possible explanation for this I can come up with.

I'm surprised that you of all people, Cindy, can only come up with this one possible explanation for a legit reason to ask cops to leave. How about if the complainant was a person of color? What if they were someone who had suffered abuse from the police?

Police are increasingly seen more as bullies and less as peace officers.

07 July 2019, 02:35 PM

ShiroKuro

quote:
What if they were someone who had suffered abuse from the police?

But the logical extension of that becomes unsustainable very fast.

What if I had experience abuse from a man. Could I ask all men to leave the shop? What if I had experienced abuse from an Arab person. Could I ask all Arabs to leave the shop?

Also, I agree with what Nina said:

quote:
I am very uncomfortable with this industry of outrage that we seem to be building via social media.

It's one thing to speak out against police brutality. It's another to be in a coffee shop, where some officers are there drinking coffee, and ask *someone else* to ask those officers to leave.

I like Nina's suggestion of going over and saying hi to the officers. Or even "Hi, I'm against police brutality, and these days I feel really uncomfortable around police officers just in general. What can you do to help me get over that?"

Then they could all sit down together and talk about what it means to protect and serve, and the barista could all serve them some free lattes.

/UtopianCoffeeShop.

07 July 2019, 03:15 PM

QuirtEvans

quote:
Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
I can only think of one scenario where asking the officers to leave might be legitimate.

In poorly run police departments, there can be a culture of retaliation against citizens who file complaints. An officer does something, you complain, and the next thing you know you are being followed around by the officer's friends (or the officer herself) for no reason. This extra police scrutiny is calculated to be intimidating, hopefully enough to get the person to drop the complaint. This sort of thing can also happen if a spouse has a domestic violence incident with an officer or applies for a temporary restraining order -- the officer's friends decide to subtly send a message to that spouse. Sadly, it happens.

If that were the case -- if the customer walked up to the barista and said she had filed a complaint or TRO and now these officers were following her -- then they could legitimately be asked to leave.

That is the only sensible possible explanation for this I can come up with.

Yeah, or if there were something personal with one of the cops. But that’s it.

07 July 2019, 03:37 PM

Cindysphinx

quote:
Originally posted by piqué:
quote:
Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
I can only think of one scenario where asking the officers to leave might be legitimate.

In poorly run police departments, there can be a culture of retaliation against citizens who file complaints. An officer does something, you complain, and the next thing you know you are being followed around by the officer's friends (or the officer herself) for no reason. This extra police scrutiny is calculated to be intimidating, hopefully enough to get the person to drop the complaint. This sort of thing can also happen if a spouse has a domestic violence incident with an officer or applies for a temporary restraining order -- the officer's friends decide to subtly send a message to that spouse. Sadly, it happens.

If that were the case -- if the customer walked up to the barista and said she had filed a complaint or TRO and now these officers were following her -- then they could legitimately be asked to leave.

That is the only sensible possible explanation for this I can come up with.

I'm surprised that you of all people, Cindy, can only come up with this one possible explanation for a legit reason to ask cops to leave. How about if the complainant was a person of color? What if they were someone who had suffered abuse from the police?

Police are increasingly seen more as bullies and less as peace officers.

Wait. So only people of color can eject cops from a place where the officers have every right to be? White people dont have that right?

I’m also not thrilled with the groupism in that way of thinking. If you have a beef with a member of a group, you can take it out for on others in that group?

07 July 2019, 04:34 PM

piqué

quote:
Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
quote:
Originally posted by piqué:
quote:
Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
I can only think of one scenario where asking the officers to leave might be legitimate.

In poorly run police departments, there can be a culture of retaliation against citizens who file complaints. An officer does something, you complain, and the next thing you know you are being followed around by the officer's friends (or the officer herself) for no reason. This extra police scrutiny is calculated to be intimidating, hopefully enough to get the person to drop the complaint. This sort of thing can also happen if a spouse has a domestic violence incident with an officer or applies for a temporary restraining order -- the officer's friends decide to subtly send a message to that spouse. Sadly, it happens.

If that were the case -- if the customer walked up to the barista and said she had filed a complaint or TRO and now these officers were following her -- then they could legitimately be asked to leave.

That is the only sensible possible explanation for this I can come up with.

I'm surprised that you of all people, Cindy, can only come up with this one possible explanation for a legit reason to ask cops to leave. How about if the complainant was a person of color? What if they were someone who had suffered abuse from the police?

Police are increasingly seen more as bullies and less as peace officers.

Wait. So only people of color can eject cops from a place where the officers have every right to be? White people dont have that right?

Um. That is not what I said. I gave it as an example of other possibilities. The other possibility I gave had nothing to do with race.

quote:
I’m also not thrilled with the groupism in that way of thinking. If you have a beef with a member of a group, you can take it out for on others in that group?

Didn't say that either. Nor did I endorse this behavior. The point of what I wrote is that police have only themselves to blame for their bad PR. Does that justify a customer asking the police to leave? I dont think so. But the fact that this happened is a reminder that the police have a serious, and well deserved image problem.

That is, assuming the customer did not have a personal issue with these particular officers.

Even if they did, I think they should have just left the cafe themselves rather than asking the barista to ask the cops to leave.

We need more information to know what the cause of the request was. But cops making people uncomfortable is very real and really must be addressed.