A Starbucks in downtown Philadelphia was at the center of controversy on Tuesday when a story was posted to Facebook revealing that a “liberal” clerk recently refused to let a city police officer use the restroom.
On his Facebook page, officer Joe Leighthardt, a Sergeant on the Philly force, posted the frustrating experience of one of his fellow officers. It wasn’t long before thousands of comments built up on Leighthardt’s post.
The officer, who remains nameless, told Sgt. Leighthardt about his mistreatment by the barista at the Starbucks at 1301 Chestnut Street, saying, “This is the world cops live in anymore. It’s hip for this generation to berate and totally disrespect cops in front of the public and praise cop killers as the heroes of they’re [sic] time.”
Leighthardt’s post elicited a quick apology from Starbucks which posted that this clerk’s behavior “is certainly not in line with the experience we want any of our customers to have in our stores. We are taking all necessary steps to ensure this doesn’t happen in the future.”
The full story, as posted to Leighthardt’s Facebook page, reveals the original officer’s growing frustration.
So I walk into the Starbucks at 12th & Chestnut in full uniform and ask the young blonde liberal behind the counter if I could use their public bathroom for which you need a key code and she states in a loud voice, so all the other customers can hear that the bathroom is for paying customers only. I then ask in a very polite manner if I could please use it. She them states in the same loud manner and a smirk “Are you a paying customer?”. It was at this point that I realized what she was dong. As I walked out with my hand up and while she continued loudly to tell me about the bathroom down the street, I was even more astonished that the many customers and other employees said nothing and seemed indifferent. This is the world cops live in anymore. It’s hip for this generation to berate and totally disrespect cops in front of the public and praise cop killers as the heroes of they’re time. I never post things but I hope my fellow brothers and sisters in blue see this and know that we have each other… and not to patronize Starbucks.
It isn’t surprising that Officer Leighthardt’s post is now going viral.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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