There seems to be a pattern these days. Just Google “police denied service at restaurant” and you’ll get hundreds of thousands of results. On July 14, an officer was denied service at Lucky Teriyaki in Sedro-Woolley, Wash. On July 16, an officer was denied service at a Taco Bell in Phenix City, Ala. On July 19, an officer was denied service at Genghis Grill in Dallas.
Most recently, on Monday, a police officer was denied service in Alexandria, Va., when the chef refused to cook for the uniformed woman.
According to Fox 5 DC, when the officer approached the counter to order, the chef reportedly came out of the kitchen and told the cashier that he would not prepare an order for "that" (the cop). The cashier and the cook both laughed at the officer, who decided to simply leave quietly, not wanting to make a scene.
The restaurant, Noodles and Company, responded to the incident with a statement saying they do not tolerate discrimination and strive to treat all customers with courtesy. They are currently working with the local “appropriate authorities” in their attempts to resolve the matter.
Where did all this prejudice come from? Could it be from the anti-cop rhetoric of politicians and celebrities? Does it come from President Obama, who, instead of remaining non-partisan after the highly publicized shootings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling and waiting for all the facts to come out before making a judgement, decided to fuel the race indignation fire and say, “When incidents like this occur, there’s a big chunk of our citizenry that feels as if, because of the color of their skin, they are not being treated the same, and that hurts, and that should trouble all of us?"
Or does it come from Beyonce, who is idolized by so many, using her platform to say the black community should "[f'ight against anyone who believes that murder or any violent action by those who are sworn to protect us should consistently go unpunished."
I don't know anybody who believes violent actions should go unpunished. But if you listened to Beyonce, you would think the police do.
Perhaps if celebrities and politicians stopped using their platform to promote racially charged rhetoric, people would have a more balanced perspective.