Oakland Coffee Shop Refuses to Serve Police Officers

Employee-owned Hasta Muerte Coffee set policy 'for physical and emotional safety of our customers and ourselves.'

Oakland police

Police officers watch as protesters project messages on their station wall after a brutality march in Oakland on January 17, 2015. (Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images)

By Ethan Sacks

A coffee shop in Oakland has left many steaming over a policy in which it refuses to serve police officers.

Hasta Muerte Coffee made local headlines when a barista refused to serve a uniformed police sergeant, who happens to be the president of the Latino Police Officers Association of Alameda County, according to KCRA-TV.

The employee-owned co-op claims the policy ensures “the physical and emotional safety of our customers and ourselves.” Hasta Muerte Coffee took a victory lap last month on social media, touting customers who traveled far out of their way to support the cause. Though a direct cause was not given, Oakland has long been an epicenter of demonstrations against police treatment of people of color.

But at least on Facebook and Twitter, that stance was anything but popular, with many pro-police supporters outraged over the show of disrespect.

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