Red & Black cafe shows Portland officer the door, won't sell him coffee again

Oregonlive ^ | June 03, 2010, 3:41PM | By Lynne Terry, The Oregonian

[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

[justlurking]

And how can the cafe owner refuse service to any member of the public under current law?

The law only prohibits refusing service on the basis of certain "protected" attributes. Being a law enforcement officer isn't one of them.

[bjorn14]

This the best part:

Safer Space Policy
*We strive to eliminate any oppressive actions, behaviors, and language in this space. These include, but are not limited to, racism, sexism, ageism, sizeism, classism, ableism, transphobia and heterosexism. We want this to be a comfortable space for everyone. Please feel free to approach a collective member in confidence should anyone here make you feel unsafe.”

What about politics and religion? I guess these aren’t allowed in their little piece of utopia.

I’d going in there and say I’m getting this really creepy commie/lib vibe it makes me uncomfortable but I like the food.

Most police dispatch systems can ID an address to find out how many times they have been called and what kind of trouble there has been. I’d write “hates cops”

[DugwayDuke]

Tommy by Rudyard Kipling

I went into a public-’ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play.

[jazusamo]

She sounds like a liberal who was mugged.

You may well be right though she's no journalist just out of school. I guess she's around forty and well spoken, from her short interview I couldn't really tell her leanings.

The Oregonian could do with a conservative commentator if only on a part time basis to offset their leftist tripe since David Reinhard left, I miss him. :)

[Crapgame]

Thanks and yes. Don Rickles was my favorite character in that movie...and he had the classic line about urging Kelly to seek a deal with the Germans...

“you know, a deal, deal...maybe the kraut is a Republican!”...

[ladyjane]

Send a black policeman and see if the cafe owner throws him out.

Great idea!

[ladyjane]

Even here, in Massachusetts, we treat our policemen better (as long as you don’t work in Cambridge)

The Mayor of Cambridge (minority female) and the governor of MA (minority male) still haven't apologized for calling the Cambridge police officer a racist. Of course Obama doesn't have to apologize. He's above it all.

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

I’m a cop in a medium sized city in Nevada. I try to stay away from Starbucks or any other upscale coffee joints. Not because I don’t like their coffee, I just don’t want people thinking I’m in there scoring free coffee.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, QuikTrip is all over the place, a very nice and upscale gas station/convenience store setup. Some people say that they "own Tulsa" (headquarters in Tulsa) ... LOL ...

But, anyway, I see the Tulsa Police in there a lot and I think they have an working arrangement with the police to get free drinks and donuts, as I've seen them wave at the clerks and walk on by and out of the store.

And that's fine by me... I don't care one way or another, and it's a good way to have the Tulsa Police always stopping by and in the stores ... :-) [they are "all over" Tulsa, that's for sure ...]

[Star Traveler]

You were saying ...

yes. The cops keep those people very safe downtown as there are some serious nefarious types.

By the way, I'll mention something about a "connection" between Portland, Oregon and Tulsa, Oklahoma that I spotted a few weeks back.

I did a lot of bike riding in Portland, as you can imagine (being the "bike capital" of the United States, arguably so ...). And so, I do quite a bit around here in Tulsa, too.

So, while I was at "MayFest" in Tulsa, I spotted some Tulsa Police at the festival in downtown on "bike patrol" ... :-)

I went up and talked to them and commented about their bikes and they looked exactly like the setup that the Portland Police have for their bike patrol in downtown Portland, too.

I meantioned that to them, (there were four of them that I was talking to) and they mentioned that they went to Portland to get information about setting up their bike patrol in Tulsa ... :-)

[pgkdan]

We’ve received threats,” Langley said. “People have threatened to attack us and break our windows.”

---

So who’s the asshat going to call if someone start breaking his windows? The Vegan Justice League?

[Billthedrill]

Could be the usual coffee-house Marxist/Anarchist wannabe’s, but you also might be inclined to wonder what’s going down there on a regular basis that they don’t want cops around to see.

[bray]

Cornelia runs my writers group. Good for her for reporting this bigotry.

Pray for America

[rlmorel]

That is true. And they have no intention of doing so, either. THAT’S a big surprise, eh?

[Got a right to Life? . . Huh?]

The owner can refuse service to anyone, I guess. Likewise, patrons choose where to spend their money. Some who have not taken a vow of poverty may read about John Langley's notion of civility and community and decide on a permanent alternative business to patronize.

I doubt that the subset of people who feel the same about the police could sustain his business, but then again, I've been away from the social & urban decay of Portland for over a decade. Things could have gone so far south that Mr. Langley was pandering in a populist way to his patrons who are loyal devotees to anarchy.

[bray]

He will likely get a boom of business from the Peoples Republic of Ptown.

Pray for Our Cops

[GOPsterinMA]

10-4!

One of my favorite films. Don Rickles is the man.

You know it’s Memorial Day or July 4th because AMC is playing Kelley’s Heroes.