Police Officers Denied Service At Restaurant

The chasm between the public and law enforcement grows wider and wider with the passing time, with every report in the media appearing to paint the police in a negative light. Unaware of the truest statistics and what it takes to protect and to serve, this only creates enmity and fear, where there ought to be trust and cooperation. In the latest spate of a police-involved row, we turn to the tiny town of Denison, Texas where a fast food worker was fired after she refused to serve two police officers.

Local media outlets identified the restaurant as Whataburger, a popular Texas burger chain, after Fox News ran the expose. Chief Jay Burch alleged that two of his officers entered the restaurant for a late night meal only to be cursed at by the employee, who after her tirade refused to serve them. The restaurant manager was then summoned for some sort of satisfaction, except upon his arrival he dismissed the situation with his response, “I don’t get into politics.”

“If a business does not want police officers as customers, just let us know, there’s no need to curse us and make a scene, just let us know you don’t want us there and we’ll go somewhere else.” Burch wrote on the Denison’s Police Department Facebook page.

A quick look at the demographics and infrastructure of a town like Denison and one will quickly see that there aren’t a plethora of options to one working the graveyard shift, who simply wants a meal during their lunch break.

One of the officers who had the misfortune of being refused service, Denison Sgt. Holly Jenkins, said on Facebook that the employee in question was unapologetic in expressing her hatred for the police and said she would continue to refuse service to police officers.

The officers were eventually served by another employee.

In a statement from Whataburger, a spokesperson issued the following.

“an individual employee acted out of line with Whataburger’s values to treat all customers with respect. We took swift action and this person is no longer employed by us.”

This incident goes hand in hand with several other incidents across the country, which has seen a rise in business employees refusing to serve police, or in one case last year, when a police officer found spit in his soft drink at a Florida fast food joint. The Denison Police Department’s Facebook post has been since removed or had its privacy settings changed.

[Featured Image by Andrew Renneisen/ Getty Images]