An employee at fast-food chain Whataburger has been fired after he refused to serve two Texas law enforcement officers on Tuesday, saying, “We don’t serve police officers.”
Cameron Beckham and Michael Magovern, who work for separate agencies, were off duty and working night shift security at a construction site, when they went to the Lewisville, Texas restaurant.
Beckham told the Star-Telegram newspaper when they entered Whataburger, the “first words we hear are, ‘We don’t serve police officers here.'”
“We were just kind of in shock,” he said. “Law enforcement officers are getting tired of this stuff.”
The officers reported the employee to the corporate branch before they got back to work, and got dinner at Dairy Queen instead.
The unnamed employee, who was fired by the company, told local ABC affiliate WFAA the comment was meant as a joke, which he tried to explain to the officers before they left.
“I thought, ‘Oh man, this is a shame – all over a joke,'” he told WFAA. “I’m joking around with the police, and I lose my job, something I’ve had over nine years.”
The employee also told the station one of the cops told him, “We’re going to make you a star” over the incident.
Whataburger responded a day later on Facebook, calling it an “isolated incident” that “We were appalled to hear” about.
The run-in comes the same month an Arby’s store manager was fired and a clerk suspended indefinitely after refusing to serve a police officer in Florida.
“Law enforcement officers are getting tired of this stuff.”
I know how you feel. It’s sort of like how black people are tired of getting shot by police.
If only they had used a religious excuse…it is Texas, right?
Yeah…I’m sure it happens a lot.
“Law enforcement officers are getting tired of this stuff.”
Yeah? Cuz this is the first I’ve heard of it. Imagine how tired of “this stuff” you’d be if you were a minority stuck in the inner city or living in a shithole like Mississippi or South Carolina after 250+ years of slavery, segregation and rampant oppression and the continuing, lingering presence of widespread racist sentiment and white supremacy belief in our country, which just experienced an 7-year-long tantrum spike due to the election of a black man as POTUS. “Tired of this stuff”…HA! Two words: Unmitigated Gall.
That being said, as funny as what the kid did was, it’s still not ok and is totally counterproductive to the cause.
We don’t serve police officers."
Notice, the guy said he was kidding, and that he immediately explained it to the cops.
Notice, I said cops, but he actually said police officers.
What self respecting dissident would say police officers?
The cops overreacted.
They couldn’t shoot him so they did the next best thing. Got him fired.