A California coffee shop doubled down on its refusal to serve police officers, claiming cops threaten their “physical and emotional safety.”
Hasta Muerte Coffee owners refused service to a Latino police sergeant March 8 and are now defending that decision despite growing outrage, KTVU reported. The shop is a worker-owned collective with a mural criticizing police shootings and the militarization of law enforcement. Oakland’s police union wrote a letter to the owners, complaining about the measure. A local city councilman said while he disagrees with the policy, there aren’t any plans to stop it.
Let’s put aside the political argument and think through the following: Being Oakland one of the most dangerous cities in Californian, is it a smart move to announce loudly to the world that your shop is free from cops 24/7? That no matter when you show up, there will be no cops? And that you pissed the cops enough they will take their sweet time to arrive if they are called?
Back in my college years, there was this restaurant in Nashville called Mack’s, open 24 hours a day. It was not fancy by any means, it had tables that were probably rescued from a construction site and the decoration was plain jane and old but the place was clean. The food was decent and inexpensive which made it popular with the college crowd (at least three institutions at walking distance) and with cops. There was no hour in which you would not see a cop car parked outside or cops having hearty meal inside. It was the safest location in South East Nashville. Those of us in the Music Business program would end a recording session at two or three in the morning, head up to Mack’s to eat knowing it was safe and we were not have to chew a 7-11 hot dog that had been rolling in the machine for 2 hours.
So, Hasta Muerte Café will likely end up honoring its name and have one or two customers and employees very “muertos” when the local crime crew decides to drop by for a cup of espresso and the contents of the register.
If somebody else far away from me wants to publicize that they are racist (all that stuff about white privilege) and hate cops, and that invites their patrons to get robbed, it’s none of my business.
When someone does eventually hold up the place, and all of the patrons inside, I wonder if the owners will get sued?
An acquaintance has suggested that this “coffee shop” is a narcotrafficante hangout and that freelance socialists targeting it will be found in very small pieces.
The Nation of Islam runs a bakery in Oakland. In the early ’70s a number of serial killers operated out of the place.
So now the “until death” coffee shop is now inviting the criminals to come and do their evil.