Oakland Coffee House Bans Police Officers
No cops allowed. That’s the rule at Hasta Muerte Coffee, a worker-collective-owned bookstore and coffee shop in Oakland, California. Apparently, nothing froths a left-wing liberal’s latte like an officer with a badge.
No cops allowed.
That’s the rule at Hasta Muerte Coffee, a worker-collective-owned bookstore and coffee shop in Oakland, California.
Apparently, nothing froths a left-wing liberal’s latte like an officer with a badge.
“We have a policy of asking police to leave for the physical and emotional safety of our customers and ourselves,” shop owners wrote on their Instagram page. “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.”
A sergeant with the Oakland Police Department was turned away from the shop on Feb. 16th and he decided to share his experience with his fellow law enforcement officers.
Television station KTVU reports that many neighborhood residents were horrified and downright offended by the news.
“I think it’s cold-blooded. I don’t understand that,” one local said.
City Council member Noel Gallo said he reached out to the coffee shop management and confirmed they have an unwritten policy to refuse service to men and women in blue.
“I don’t agree with that, 100 percent,” Gallo told the television station. “I think we need to work together, not against each other.”
But frankly, the owners of Hasta Muerte Coffee do not care what anyone thinks of the ban, accusing their critics of being “white or have adopted the privileges whiteness affords.”
But they also get triggered by black and gay police officers.
“The facts are that [police 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,” the shop owners wrote on Instagram.
I’d be curious to know whether the coffee shop has violated California’s strict nondiscrimination laws.
Had the customers in question been denied service because of the color of their skin or their sexual orientation, I suspect the attorney general’s office would’ve already launched an investigation.
I’m sure there are other coffee houses around Oakland that will be more than happy to pour a cup of java for a police officer.
And heaven forbid the folks at Hasta Muerte Coffee ever find themselves in need of help from the police. But if they do, I have no doubt officers would be there in a heartbeat.
The Oakland Police Department protects and serves everyone — even left-wing bigots.
