Fast Food Workers: Do Your *^$% Job!

Once again this morning I see a news piece about some moronic employee at a Hardee’s “restaurant” somewhere (I didn’t care enough to read the whole piece) refusing service to a police officer.  I personally know people who have been refused service at restaurants just because they’re the police.  I know other people who have been refused service, or even seating, at a restaurant because they were carrying guns (plain clothes detectives in suits refused seats because their guns were visible).  This crap has GOT to stop.

It’s time for every establishment owner / manager to have an employee meeting and make it clear that law enforcement professionals will not only be served, but they will receive a level of service equal to that of every other customer and any employee who refuses to do so will be immediately terminated.  If an owner / manager doesn’t want to do such because they don’t want to serve the police, then they should acknowledge that publicly and refuse service FROM the police as well.  Don’t want police in your establishment?  Then disconnect your entire phone system from 9-1-1.  Deal with robberies, fires, fights, etc all on your own.

See, there’s the problem that gets overlooked in these sensationalistic “news” pieces:  Law enforcement is just one piece of public safety.  While it is currently fashionable to some screwed up segment of society to refuse service to the police, that same refusal can be given to anyone else as well.  Why?  Because it’s refusal based on employment or appearance.  In other places don’t we call that a hate crime?

While those same idiotic employees whose peak accomplishment in life is employment at a fast food restaurant will call the police and demand help for whatever problem they have (like the guy who dialed 9-1-1 because a Subway restaurant worker didn’t put enough dressing on his sub), and they’ll absolutely demand that the police do so because “it’s their job,” they don’t want to do THEIR job and serve the police as customers.

Folks, customer service is customer service.  The law enforcement professionals in our nation protect and serve you no matter what race, religion, nationality, gender, etc category you fall into.  You may not believe that because you are saturated by the mainstream media’s sensationalistic approach to “reporting” wherein you’ve been sold on the fiction that police officers are licensed to hunt young black men and don’t care about the law.  Believe that crap if you so choose.  Decide you hate the police if you want.  But then at least have the courtesy to exclude yourself form the emergency services section of society; never call on anyone in public safety again.

I would dearly love to see what would happen if a police officer got a call from any of those places that have refused police service and instead of responding to the call the police officer keyed up his radio and said, “Nope. I’m not going. We don’t serve that restaurant.”  Do you think the establishment manager would just take that and walk away quietly?  Do you think the owner would just say, “Oh, sorry to have bothered you then.”  I doubt it.  We all know that they’d be screaming from the rooftops that those horrible police refused them service and that, in doing so, we are ALL somehow racist, prejudicial, narrow minded, white supremacist bigots.

I say again: this crap has GOT to stop.  Law enforcement professionals are the most unappreciated segment of public safety (at present) and yet they keep doing their job.  If they don’t, complaints get filed. If they do, complaints get filed.  Just how long do you think this stuff can go on before people who USED to want to be the police decide it just isn’t worth it?  Just how many officers do you think will be refused service before they decide it’s not worth the aggravation to try and help people?

In the history of law enforcement, police officers have been attacked in a great many ways at fast food establishments and other restaurants.  There are records of officers having had their food poisoned or otherwise contaminated, including officers who have found broken glass in their sandwiches.  There are records of officers having been ambushed at fast food restaurants. I know an officer who was attacked by a man wielding a baseball bat. I know an officer who was ambushed and shot at a restaurant.  Where is all the mainstream media reporting on THAT?

How come no one in Congress is calling for police officers to be protected by hate crime laws?  How come some idiot working a register at some fast food joint can refuse to serve the police simply because they’re the police and that’s not considered hateful?  If that same cashier refused service to anyone because they were black, white, Asian, Mexican, etc that would certainly be a hate crime.  If that same idiot refused service to a woman because she was pregnant or a homosexual simply based on his sexuality that would be a hate crime. If police officers refused a call for service at a given address because they knew it was occupied by convicted criminals and crackheads THAT would be a hate crime (somehow – we all know it would be twisted that way by the “civil rights leaders” of today).  How come a police officer can be refused service simply based on the fact of his or her employment and THAT isn’t a hate crime?

Didn’t a court case decide that a long time ago?

The entire United States is covered by the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination by privately owned places of public accommodation on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin. Places of “public accommodation” include hotels, restaurants, theaters, banks, health clubs and stores. The right of public accommodation is also guaranteed to disabled citizens under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination by private businesses based on disability.

“We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone” sounds vague and arbitrary and is seen on signs in a lot of business’ front windows or on their entry doors. A business can’t just randomly refuse to serve someone; NOT ANYONE.  Police are SOMEONE too.  Isn’t it time we started holding people and businesses liable for their actions when those actions target the police too?

Sure, the easy answer is, “Don’t patronize that business anymore.”  Speak with your wallet.  I don’t think that’s a good enough answer. It won’t have a sufficient impact and if the police pursued that course of action, someone somewhere would start reporting on how the police are prejudicial against that business and the next thing you know the police would be painted as the bad guys… again.

Enough is enough.  I go back to my original statement; my original call for action:

It’s time for every establishment owner / manager to have an employee meeting and make it clear that law enforcement professionals will not only be served, but they will receive a level of service equal to that of every other customer and any employee who refuses to do so will be immediately terminated.

If the business owner or manager doesn’t feel sufficiently supportive of law enforcement and/or public safety in general to make such a blanket statement, then they should accept two things:

First, public safety can CHOOSE not to provide you emergency service as a reciprocal policy in response to your refusal to provide them service, and

Second, they could/should be held liable for any civil action pursued against them by those that were refused service.

End of rant. I now return you to your regularly scheduled Sunday.  BE SAFE.