The L.A. Sheriff's Office Is Mad at Starbucks—Over a Pig Doodle
Starbucks says the employee was fired but that the drawing was not intended as a slight against the officer.
Over the weekend, a sheriff's deputy reported receiving rude treatment at a chain restaurant. Not only did he complain to management, but his own boss called and threatened the restaurant's corporate management on the deputy's behalf.
In a statement posted to social media over the weekend, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) said it was "deeply concerned" about an incident that took place at a "local coffee shop in the city of Norwalk." (The department has since confirmed it was a Starbucks.)
On January 9, the statement said, a LASD deputy "was deliberately served a cup bearing a hand-drawn image of a pig, which is commonly used to demean law enforcement. This action was extremely offensive, inappropriate, and unacceptable. The deputy quickly reported the incident to the store manager, who advised that the matter would be investigated."
"It felt discouraging and disrespectful, especially after a long day of serving the community," the deputy wrote on Instagram. "All I wanted was caffeine, but instead I left feeling uneasy."
Assuming the deputy was correct, it's certainly unprofessional to draw disparaging doodles on a customer's cup. But the matter didn't stop there.
"Upon learning about this incident from the employee," the statement continued, LASD Sheriff Robert Luna "immediately escalated the matter and contacted an individual in the coffee company's corporate security division to formally raise concerns and to ensure accountability. In addition, the Sheriff spoke directly with the deputy to check on his well-being, convey his full support, and make it clear that disrespectful actions will not be tolerated against our personnel."
This detail is galling. If a server is rude, you have the right to complain to their boss; you're also free to eat at a different restaurant, or to just forget about it and move on. What you can't do is call the police because a member of the wait staff was mean to you.
And yet an officer was so offended that he not only told the manager, but his boss—the top law enforcement official in the largest sheriff's department in the country—felt compelled to get involved in something that is in no way within the police's purview.
Because no matter how uneasy or disrespected the deputy felt, the First Amendment protects our right to insult or disparage the police. Numerous court cases have made clear that this includes giving the finger and calling them discourteous names—yes, including pig.
Telling Starbucks corporate security that disrespectful sketches "would not be tolerated" is an egregious misuse of Luna's authority.
Besides, it's not even clear whether the barista intended to disparage the deputy.
Jaci Anderson, Starbucks' head of global communications, confirmed to the New York Post that the employee in question was fired but added the drawing was not derogatory, nor was it drawn with the officer in mind; rather, the employee had doodled John Pork, an internet meme, on cups meant for coworkers and didn't intend to serve them to customers.
Readers are free to decide whether they find this explanation plausible. (The pig in the drawing certainly seems genial.) But it would hardly be the first time a police officer exaggerated or invented a perceived slight at the hands of a service worker.
In June 2020, three New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers checked into Bellevue Hospital, feeling ill after getting milkshakes from Shake Shack that appeared to contain traces of bleach. Within hours, the NYPD detectives' union put out a statement claiming "three of our fellow officers were intentionally poisoned." By the morning, the NYPD had determined there was "no criminality by Shake Shack's employees," and the bleach was unintentional residue from a recently cleaned machine.
The prior year, an officer in Herington, Kansas, reported receiving a cup from McDonald's with "fucking pig" written on the side; as it turned out, the officer had written it himself.
True, police work is dangerous—though certainly not the most dangerous profession. But there's no excuse for law enforcement to drum up stories of harassment and abuse when the facts aren't on their side.
After all, do we want people this thin-skinned to be the ones tasked with using deadly force to protect us?
