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

oregonLive.com ^ | 2010.0603 | Lynne Terry, The Oregonian

[davidlachnicht]

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.

[Pilated]

Yes I read the whole dang thing already - how else would I know about the 2nd paragraph..... Neither I nor anyone I know who lives in Portland would ever step foot in this place.

[Jack Hammer]

Daily life in the People’s Republic of Oregon.

[EDINVA]

send in a black, uniformed/armed police officer and let him refuse to sere him/her. Then let’s see how hie likes a discrimination lawsuit.

[JLS]

And not just for political reasons. Would you feel safe in a business that boots out police officers? What is this some kind of mafia front that is confortable doing their own “policing.”

[Thunder90]

Bet that there is no guns there either. The Vegans fear the cop and they fear the weapon even more.

[GSWarrior]

Hopefully they’ll be out of business soon.

Is there not a distinct parallel here with what Rand Paul was trying to explain last week about business owners having the right to refuse services to people?

This is how it is supposed to work. I can refuse service to whomever I choose but I should not be protected from the consequences of my business practices by the government.

[wastedyears]

There are very few former/ex Marines.

[mvpel]

Perhaps if we saw less of this:

Or this kind of abuse of free speech captured on video...

Then perhaps we'd see less of what's reported in the article.

[erod]

You make a very good point, mind you I am dealing with a very radical vegan and she’s as annoying as heck.

But I get what you’re saying FRiend.

[erod]

Oh that’s so basic, I think we already do that, thanks for the tip.

[LonghornFreeper]

If I owned a biz like that, cops would get their coffee for free. I wonder if the idiot is that way toward uniformed military people, too.

Yeah, they need free coffee, after all it is hard work giving meaningless traffic tickets by the dozen or busting 20 year olds having a beer, while ignoring real crime and leaching off the taxpayers.

Smashing down the doors of frequently innocent people and shooting their "aggressive" golden retrievers also works up quite a thirst I'm sure.

I hate leftist vegans, but I'll take them over 99% of American cops any day.

And the idea that cops are anything like our brave soldiers is just ridiculous. I know plenty of soldiers who've been overseas fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan, and if you told almost any of them he was "like a cop", he might punch you in the face.

[Just Lori]

They have a place on their website for DONATIONS!

[AuH2ORepublican]

If this coffee-shop owner is as stupid as he appears to be from this incident, he won’t have to worry about police officers trying to buy his coffee a couple of years from now, since he’ll have gone out of business.

When I was a teenager I worked at a video club, and on hot days police officers would come in to the air-conditioned store, look at boxes of the available movies, and walk out a few minutes later without having rented anything. My boss (the store’s owner) told me that most of those cops were not even club members, but he always welcomed them to come in and cool off because he knew that if there ever was a robbery or some similar incident at the store it would make it likelier that the police officer who got the call would know the store’s location and layout. It is good business to be nice to police officers.

[Drill Thrawl]

Way back in a previous life, I managed a pizza shop. I made it a point to make sure all first responders got free food while on duty. The two times I needed them, the response time was insanely fast.

A common sense rule in life: Always take care of your first responder and military people.

Libs is so stoopid!

[Fire_on_High]

If she’s vegan, just dairy is enough. Cheesecake, anyone? Spice cake with cream cheese frosting? Apple pie made with sour cream? Yum :-)

[SunkenCiv]

One of the co-owners of the cafe, John Langley... walked up and asked Crooker to leave, saying he felt uncomfortable having a uniformed officer in the vegan cafe.

[Drill Thrawl]

Since credit card companies and pay pal charge a percentage of the tranaction with an additional minimal fee might it not cost them money if a bunch of us donated a penny?

[right way right]

Hmmmm....I got a bunch of old freezer burnt meat I should send to this business.

Road kill would work good too.

[Almondjoy]

I know I know flame on for this but....

Why is it ok for a an idiot hippie to ask a cop to leave his place but Rand Paul takes a ton of flack for saying that idiot racists should be able to keep (enter your race here) out of their places of business?

It’s ok to discriminate as long as it fits the liberal agenda?

[Almondjoy]

Yes but in Salem, Oregon if your dog chases down a bunny and throws it in the air you can be charged with a crime.