Portland Restaurant Sees Double
News reports from Portland, Oregon went national about a uniformed police officer on duty, which stopped by a Portland restaurant for a cup of coffee. The owner of the Portland restaurant asked the policeman to leave, because he was in uniform. They did apparently tell the policeman that he and any other members of the police department were welcomed anytime to eat or to have a cup of coffee, just not while in uniform and they were welcomed in street clothing. Possibly the owners felt that the police officer intimidated their customers by just being there. However, it does feel that the owners would have realized some comfort in the fact that if people on the street knew that there were on duty police officers who frequent their restaurant for coffee it would have made them feel safer. Apparently the owners did not agree. If the owner felt this strongly about serving policemen in uniform then maybe they should post a sign. Police officers protect civilians at all cost, it just does not seem right to ask a policeman to leave when they are just resting with a cup of coffee, and not bothering anyone. Pro and con opinions will vary, and that is human nature. Let’s just hope that this owner is not in need of police services in the future. It is a surety that police would respond immediately if the owner ever needed them; however it also seems that the owner should feel a bit ashamed of their actions. The cafe owner made a statement that since this officer was asked to leave, the number of customers have increased to double the customer count before this incident. One has to wonder if this Portland restaurant owner feels the same way about soldiers in uniform. Would he ask a soldier to leave his cup of coffee also? Soldiers, like that policeman put their lives on the line everyday for citizens, and this restaurant owner. It does not matter if his customer base did increase, it was very poor taste to do what he did, customer increase or not.
