Posted on 06/03/2010 7:04:35 PM PDT by MovementConservative
In mid-May, Portland police Officer James Crooker went to Southeast Portland on a patrol call. With a few minutes to spare, he decided to get a coffee.
So, he popped into the Red & Black cafe on Southeast 12th Avenue near Oak Street, bought a coffee and was heading out when a customer approached him, saying she appreciates the hard job that police officers do every day in Portland.
One of the co-owners of the cafe, John Langley, has another point of view. While the officer and customer were chatting, he walked up and asked Crooker to leave, saying he felt uncomfortable having a uniformed officer in the vegan cafe.
The incident, which was brief, speaks volumes about the tensions between Portland police and some members of the community who are more worried about police shootings than protection.
Crooker said he was surprised to be shown the door but left immediately. He said this marked a first during his nine-year in law enforcement, two in Portland and seven in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
"The places that I've been kicked out of before have been places like the methadone clinic," he said. "I've never been kicked out of a regular cafe."
But the 36-year-old officer, who was born and raised in Portland, said it's all part of working this city's streets in a uniform.
"We have a unique relationship with the community," he said. "You're there to protect them but on the other hand they don't know what that involves. Being gracious is part of it."
A former Marine who served in Iraq, Crooker didn't take the incident to heart.
"It was not personal," he said. "He was being hostile to my uniform," he said.
Langley, who did not raise his voice during the encounter, agreed.
"It's not about the police," Langley said. "It's about what the police represent to many people who frequent the cafe.
The cafe draws vegans -- of course -- along with homeless people and animal-rights and environmental activists who Langley said have been targets of police abuse and harassment.
But the cafe also draws customers like Cornelia Seigneur, who blogged about the incident on her website.
Seigneur, who is a freelancer for The Oregonian, was enjoying lunch with her daughter on May 18 when Crooker came in, was the one who approached him.
"There have been some unfortunate situations recently," Seigneur said. "But overall the police are out there day in and day out protecting us."
She said she struck up a conversation with Crooker to show her support for police, who she said saved the life of a friend after he was shot by gang members.
When Langley asked Crooker to leave, she was startled.
"It was shocking," Seigneur said. "Everyone deserves to have a coffee, and he was served a coffee. It was humiliating."
She said there were only about three other people in the cafe and that no else seemed to notice the officer.
But the incident has fired a reaction, with dozens of comments pouring into Seigneur's website.
It's been so overwhelming that she took the blog post down but put it back up Thursday afternoon.
The cafe, too, has received a deluge of calls, with about half supporting the cafe and the rest expressing anger.
"We've received threats," Langley said. "People have threatened to attack us and break our windows."
Still, he has no regrets.
"I never expected an police officer to come into the space," he said. "If it happened again, I wouldn't serve him."
-- Lynne Terry
Officer Crooker, thanks for your service to your country in the USMC, and thanks for your service to a populace that would apparently rather spit on you than serve you coffee. I hope someone points you to this thread so you can see this.
Even here, in Massachusetts, we treat our policemen better (as long as you don’t work in Cambridge) If you ever come out this way, Freepmail me, and I’ll buy you a steak dinner, not a worthless POS vegan barf-fest. I mean it.
You know this is really ironic. Leftists want to outsource citizens’ self-protection to the police by outlawing personal firearms. But they also hate the police who are the ones to whom they outsource the personal protection.
Cognitive dissonance. I guess leftism really is a mental illness.
I detest liberalism. Okay, I know there are conservative vegans too, but I bet the numbers are pretty one sided...
The cop is pure class. The cafe owner is pure crass.
Why would anybody go near this scumbag Langley and his rat-infested cafe?
Given his preferred clientelle, the place no doubt smells like urine and b.o.
10-12 cops shopuld go in in uniform at the same time
I have to go to Portland on business in a couple months. At least I know one place NOT to visit.
It's not an area you would likely be in, if you were visiting. It's sort of out of the way and I don't think too many people come across it, from the looks of the area.
The core downtown area is across the river from where this place is ... it's a lot more active in that core downtown area, than this location ...
Given his preferred clientelle, the place no doubt smells like urine and b.o.
I think that's the kind of "area" that this is in -- as it's close to the Catholic Charities, and also close to a "soup kitchen" there, too, if I remember correctly (and if it's still there).
So, a lot of that kind of "traffic" is in the area for hand-outs already ...
Nice wholesome looking officer. The city should be proud.
Actually, a lot of the Portland Police look exactly like that ... LOL ... no, really ... :-)
What would Langley do if a military service member walked in wearing a military uniform?
I travel a lot and get my coffee at Pilot travel centers. Great coffee at a great price.
Cognitive dissonance.
Definitely ... a lot of "cognitive dissonance" going on there ... :-)
Any Freepers in Portland should visit the place, order the most complicated coffee that place can dish out and then say “Oh...is this the place that doesn’t serve cops? Nevermind.” — Then leave.
This officer probably risks his life everyday and a stupid moron says and does something like that.
P.S. And owned by a person who at least claims to be a conservative (running for TN governor).
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