Starbucks Under Fire for Tempe Location asking Officers to Leave

Posted on by Kailyn Hayes, DI

Starbucks has issued an apology after an employee asked six police officers in Tempe, AZ to leave one of its stores or move out the sight of a customer who felt uncomfortable because of the officers.

What We Know:

  • In a statement Friday, the Tempe Officers Association said six police officers stopped at Starbucks to enjoy coffee on the Fourth of July. “The barista asked the officers to move out of the customer’s line of sight or to leave,” the association said. “Disappointed, the officers did in fact leave.”
  • The group posted an image with the words “DUMP STARBUCKS” to Facebook and Twitter, which inspired the hashtag, . Rossann Williams, Starbucks executive vice president and president of US retail, released a statement late Saturday, saying she spoke with the police chief. “What occurred in our store on July 4 is never the experience your officers or any customer should have,” Williams’ statement read.
  • Many people on social media wrote they’d stand with the Tempe Police Department and boycott Starbucks, but others argued that the officers should consider how police-involved shootings would make a customer uncomfortable around them. Officer-involved shootings were at an all-time high last year in Maricopa County, which includes Tempe, according to The Arizona Republic.
  • In 2018, police arrested two black men in a Starbucks in Philadelphia as they waited in the coffee shop without ordering. The company had to close several stores to hold racial bias training after this incident.

Will you join the boycott against Starbucks or will you continue sipping your frappuccinos?

 

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