From Daily Mail: An off-duty police officer out of uniform in Texas was refused service at a local McDonald’s by an employee simply for being a cop.
The officer who works for the Brenham Police Department went to grab a quick bite to eat with his two children at the fast-food chain, but a female employee would not serve him.
Brenham Police Chief Craig Goodman said the shocking incident happened at the 500 Hwy 290 West location in the town that’s located about 80 miles outside of Dallas. ‘We know this was an isolated incident that involved a single employee who is not fond of law enforcement,’ a statement posted to the department’s Facebook page reads.
Goodman told KPRC the employee’s son is currently in custody ‘for a serious offense and she just doesn’t have a pleasant view or a positive view of law enforcement.’
Another employee at the McDonald’s stepped in and served the officer and his family. ‘Nobody deserves to be treated like that,’ Goodman told KHOU. ‘We know that these problems exist everywhere, but we did not expect that here.’
The officer, who has not been publicly named, told his captain what happened and he contacted McDonald’s, who immediately let the employee go. ‘They, much like a police organization, looked at what took place, and after gathering the information, they came to the right decision and that employee no longer works for their business,’ Goodman said.
He added that the owners of the eatery were ‘disheartened’ when they heard about the incident.
Goodman said that the officer who this happened to is one of the best in their department and is also a former Marine. He shared that they aren’t judging McDonald’s for what happened based ‘on the action of this one worker. The actions of that one employee do not reflect the beliefs or opinions of management, the owners, or the McDonald’s company as a whole,’ he said. ‘We would like to thank the owners of McDonald’s for their continued support and for seeing that this issue has been resolved.’
In Virginia, a police officer was denied service at a restaurant because she was in uniform. The officer had been standing in line at the Noodles & Company on Duke Street in Alexandria on Monday when a female cook emerged from the back and said she wouldn’t serve the cop, Fox5 reports.
Gesturing towards the cop, the cook told the restaurant’s cashier: ‘You better pull me off the line, because I’m not serving that.’ The Alexandria police department said both the cashier and cook started laughing – and the officer, who has not been identified, left the restaurant at this point.
‘Well, your first response as a police officer is anger.’ police chief Earl Cook told the local station. These are very difficult times right now with our relations with everyone, and to have one of my officers treated in that manner unnecessarily – your first response is anger, then you calm down a bit.’
His outrage at the incident led him to visit the establishment on Tuesday. Managers apologized for it and said they would investigate what had happened. They later told him that it appeared the encounter had occurred just as the officer in question had described. Management said that they would now post signs on their windows to express their support for law enforcement, a representative for the Alexandria police union said, according to Fox.
Noodles & Company released a statement after the incident, saying they expect the ‘highest ethical and personal behavior’ from employees. ‘We value each of our guests and are committed to treating every one with dignity and respect,’ the company said. ‘We do not tolerate any form of discrimination.’ The company added that they are working with authorities to resolve the matter and have made an effort to reach out to the police officer.
In the wake of the incident, Derrick Perks, an editor for Associations Now, said there had been calls for the public to steal from the restaurant. On Twitter, the police department said they do not support any crime to come as a result of the incident – and added that they do not even support a boycott of the restaurant.
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