Starbucks Barista Fired After Officer's Cup Had 'Pig' on the Label

[pintobean]

An Oklahoma police officer working on Thanksgiving made a Starbucks run for emergency dispatchers to thank them for working during the holiday. When he got his order, he said, he saw the word “PIG” printed on a cup’s label.

The officer, a member of the Kiefer, Okla., police department, took the order to the dispatchers and contacted the police chief, Johnny O’Mara, who was on vacation at the time, according to Jory Mendes, a Starbucks spokesman.

The word “PIG” was printed on all five cups, KTUL-TV reported. When Chief O’Mara called the Starbucks, in Glenpool, Okla., the manager offered to reprint the cups, which the chief said was an insufficient apology, the station reported.

The officer told the station that the barista contacted him, apologized and said it was meant as a joke.

More - https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/30/us/starbucks-pig-cup.html

[tymorial]

1. Uh huh. "Joke"

[whathehell]

25. Yeah, after drawing the word "pig" on all five cups

Last edited Mon Dec 2, 2019, 05:09 AM - Edit history (1)

Seems Mr. Barista is not only a bigot, but a particularly dumb one, at that.

[TheBlackAdder]

69. It looks like the PIG is surrounded by asterisks, which should mean it was a web order.

.

It it is *PIG*, then that is a user-assigned name, not one from the store.


"The officer who received the cup spoke to us off camera. He said the employee has reached out to him personally and apologized, saying it was simply meant as a joke."

I would like to hear the employee say that directly to the reporter.

.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

85. Way too many people don't want to hear that here, I guess.

Apparently me linking to an article about Twitter discussions about this is somehow ridiculous.

[marble falls]

103. People don't need to loose their livlihood over this minor of a mistake. This is a teachable moment.

Its not like he shot an unarmed officer to death running away from him and not losing his job.

What ever happened to proportionality in this country?

[Captain Stern]

104. C'mon man. It was proportional.

You're right in that he didn't shoot an unarmed officer (or anyone else) to death that was running away from him. If he had he'd be going to prison, or being executed.

Instead, he's getting fired from Starbucks.

[marble falls]

105. We hardly fire cops for shooting unarmed running suspects. Police use 'pig' for themselves ...

as a joke, too.

Firing is too tough. We need to use the event to teach.

A job at Starbucks is not a toy job. It represents real employment to a lot of of low income, underpaid workers, un-benefitted employees who try to support themselves and family with them. It means the difference between shelter and the streets and hungry and fed children.

Taking away a source of income is not proportional to a bad choice that does not hurt anyone. People are even let out of jail to work and keep their jobs, why pile onto a minimum wage worker. Why does a stupid act by the weaker in society against the more powerful draw such vengeance? If he's given that cop (cop - a word that was about as strong as pig not all that long ago) the finger and he was arrested, he'd been released on first amendment issues.

This was not proportional at all.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. What, no paid administrative leave pending an internal investigation?

[Sherman A1]

3. Precisely

seems only reasonable.

[pintobean]

4. Maybe you missed it

The barista admitted to doing it.

Maybe you think it was a coerced confession.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. They must have forgotten to turn the body cam off.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

51. The officer said the barista admitted it.

There are other versions of what happened on Twitter. Including that it was the cop that had that put on there.

[pintobean]

62. Yeah, you go ahead and use twitter as a news source.

[getagrip_already]

6. what is with this "barista" crap and why do people keep saying it?

These people aren't highly trained artisans. They are minimum wage earners, on shifting part time hours, with no benefits.

At mcdonalds, they are simply "workers".

These workers are no different. Don't fall into starbucks marketing bs. I'm sure they high five each other when a reporter uses it.

As for writing something something offensive, no company should allow that. I'm sure there are first amendment arguments here, but employers should still not tolerate hate speech, in any form.

[onenote]

7. There is no first amendment argument here

Starbucks isn't the government.

[pintobean]

8. I really don't care what Starbucks wants to call their employees.

Seems like an odd thing to fret about.

[FirstLight]

41. heehee

I need to re-watch those episodes, it's fun to see woody harrelson when he was that young

[Renew Deal]

10. So is being a jerk

[pintobean]

15. Looks like he chose his hill to die on.

FFR

[Renew Deal]

37. Hopefully the admins are merciful

[cwydro]

58. Scared to ask what I missed.

[pintobean]

63. A cop hater had a meltdown.

2 + these three = 5 and out.

[pintobean]

64. Lol.

[cwydro]

65. Lol! Sorry I missed it!

[brooklynite]

11. I'll flip the question to you...

You know nothing about the police officer or his performance.

[Hortensis]

14. Hate speech is hate expressed. Imo your posts are out of line.

[dware]

67. I'm reading some of the comments downthread,

and I'm just amazed at the double standard here, you can bet your bottom dollar if this had been a slur towards a POC, these same people would be calling for the offenders head.

[Takket]

17. it is a word that convinces people its okay to pay $10 for 50 cents worth of coffee and milk

[dewsgirl]

56. My son gets Starbucks twice a day, I know. He paid

6 dollars for a tea with milk this morning and a 2 dollar tip, it's absurd.

[CentralMass]

19. By definition...

A barista (/bəˈriːstə, -ˈrɪstə/; Italian: [baˈrista]; from the Italian for "bartender&quot is a person, usually a coffeehouse employee, who prepares and serves espresso-based coffee drinks.

[aikoaiko]

23. At McDonald's they are called McCafe Specialists. I kid you not.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. The First Amendment doesn't apply to private businesses. However,

there is such a thing as good public relations, and no sane business person would allow an employee to insult any customer, "joke" or not.

[DangerousRhythm]

45. Shitting on baristas isn't the way here.

Making drinks correctly is a skill and, this story aside, baristas put up with a LOT of shit from customers.

Tip your barista. It’ll make their day.

[getagrip_already]

46. it takes skill to pour a cup of coffee or grab a pastry from the case?

Sorry, I don't see it.

I'm not dumping on the workers, just the marketing. I'd tip them if I went there, but I hate their coffee; I drink it black and it's frequently burnt and bitter.

You can keep the sweetened frothy and flavored drinks. But if that's your thing, drink up and often.

[DangerousRhythm]

48. You clearly know nothing about making espresso based drinks, and that's OK. n/t

[stopdiggin]

61. since you're going to dig in

here's another voice to tell you that you're just flat wrong here. There's a good bit more involved than just pouring a cup of joe .. and the coffee shops now make their living on the "frothy and flavored" drinks, because that is what their customers are interested in. In many respects the barista's job is more detailed, technical and demanding than that of a bartender, who are universally rewarded with a great deal more respect (and money) for their efforts.

[LisaM]

54. I worked at a coffee shop for a while (for pretty low wages), and when I tell people I did

I refer to myself as a former barista. I was trained, I knew how to make good coffee drinks, and despite the pay I enjoyed the job a lot. Why shouldn't someone with a skill get the name that goes along with it?



I also worked at McDonald's when I was a teenager, and even there, positions were differentiated between cashier, cook, etc., though of course I have no idea if it's that way now.

[Skittles]

77. agreed

it's always been a bunch of bullshit

[packman]

16. And I suppose those officers, in their line of work and duties,

never, ever used derogatory, insulting, demeaning or racially tinged wording. Yah, sure. Sounds like a snowflake to me.

[Takket]

18. supposing such a thing really has no bearing on what the former employee said

[whathehell]

21. Yeah, just as we have this thing called "Innocent until proven guilty".

which means we treat people as individuals, instead of slurring them as a group.
Had a barista do this to a group of minority customers, you'd all be outraged.

[packman]

24. I am outraged every time I see police beat, shoot or abuse any minority or anyone

A barista using a word does not rise to the inherent racism in many, many police organizations. A word on a coffee cup showing his feelings toward them demanded at the most an apology.

[dware]

28. Disagree.

He violated company policy, that's grounds for termination.

Next time he'll use more sense, hopefully.

We're all outraged at police brutality and misconduct, but that was the wrong way to go about it and he paid the price for his stupidity.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

29. The point isn't whether it's no big deal for a business' employee to insult a cop

because sometimes some cops act like racist assholes, but whether it's OK for an employee to insult any customer, even as a joke. This business decided it isn't OK, and it shouldn't be.

[JonLP24]

39. A barista wrote ISIS on a Muslim's man cup

But a whole bunch of Xenophobes were like nothing to see here move along.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/30/man-islamic-dress-told-starbucks-employee-his-name-was-aziz-she-put-isis-cup/%3foutputType=amp

Definitely never going to Starbucks ever.

[whathehell]

32. As am I, but unless these particular officers are guilty of such crimes

which we do NOT know, they have a right to be treated with the same respect as any other customer.

Apart from the fact that service people are ROUTINELY fired for disrespting customers in any way, let alone actual name- calling,
framing the barista's offense as just putting."a word on a coffe cup" is dmore than a tad disingenuous

*What if that "word" had been the N-word or some other racial slur?*
I think we both know you'd be singing a different tune then.

*This HAS happened in some stores to certain PoC and the offenders were rightfully fired for it.

[Humanist_Activist]

35. Don't draw comparison between minorities communities that are victimized by cops...

on a consistent basis and cops themselves, there's no equivalency here, and its insulting to minorities.

[JonLP24]

40. I agree

[whathehell]

42. False assumption: I never said insulting people you don't know

is "equivalent" to abuse of power by law enforcement, I said they are both wrong, the latter clearly being the more serious offense -- Have a nice day.

[TheRealNorth]

55. We will have 4 more years of Trump with statements like this go mainstream

[radius777]

76. Trump was elected due to the coddling of white America

and their cherished myths about the inherent goodness of white society and authority figures such as cops being the "good guys", when for minority communities this is often not the case.

The hard dose of truth is what we need, to help us defeat not just Trump (who is just one person), but Trumpism/neofascism as a movement.

[cwydro]

59. This.

I can’t believe people think this is ok.

[whathehell]

66. Same here..

Although I'm not sure they really think that..They seem more like posers trying to evince something like "street cred".

[dware]

22. So in your world,

2 wrongs make a right?

You have no idea what these officers may have said or done in their profession, but we do know what the Barista did, he admitted to it..

AFAIC, Starbuck's management did the right thing by terminating this persons employment, maybe next time, he'll think twice before pulling a "joke" like that.

[packman]

27. We all know from history and current events what police do and how they treat others

I would like those cops that were so offended admit they never, ever used any degrading language to describe the people they deal with - I still stick to my opinion they were and are snowflakes with oh-so-dainty feelings.

[dware]

30. Why do they have to admit to anything?

They're not the ones who wrote pig on the cups, the Barista did, he admitted to it.

As far as your opinion, you are perfectly entitled to it, just as I am entitled to my opinion.

Have a good Sunday.

[Skittles]

78. I hope you never serve the public

[emmaverybo]

33. If they write a slur on a ticket, let's hope they face consequences. No one deserves such treatment

whatever their occupation, appearance, age, ethnicity, or any affiliation with any group per a uniform. She can express her views when she’s off-shift or privately with co-workers. He’s not a pig until he acts like one, in any case.

[whathehell]

20. Good -- The barista deserved it. n/t

.

[DFW]

31. The article said that the reason for the Starbucks run was:

He was "working on Thanksgiving made a Starbucks run for emergency dispatchers to thank them for working during the holiday."

It was for dispatchers working on Thanksgiving, not for beat cops shooting down unarmed civilians. The dispatchers didn't need to be labeled pigs on top of pulling holiday duty. They are the ones who were working on Thanksgiving to be there to call a squad car to Starbucks in case some asshole ran in shooting up the place. The slur was misplaced, and the employee realized it soon enough. If the police chief was cool with talking to the employee and reinstating him, I think it would do everyone a lot of good if they all sat down, talked it over, and did just that.

[emmaverybo]

36. Why reinstate an employee with such bad judgement? She should not have insulted any customer

and particularly not for their membership in a group, despite other members’ offenses. Pedo on a priest’s cup? Plenty of good employees would like her job.

[Blue_Adept]

43. Because we're a punishment based society

Spank the child
make it clear they did wrong.

Talk to people? Try and grow and learn and get along?

Hell no.

Fire the bastard.

[emmaverybo]

44. If she had written "terrorist scum" on a hijab-wearing customer's cup, I think you would agree

she should be fired, as beneficial as an apology and meeting with the people she’d offended might be.

Whatever one’s position, using it, unprovoked, to verbally abuse a customer is grounds to dismiss. If she did not understand that, or could not see the consequences ahead, she simply is not fit to work with the public.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

50. Maybe the hijab-wearer would hand the cup to the nearest cop ...

... "officer, I think they gave me your coffee."

[Nature Man]

52. Well,

at least the cop wasn't out shooting young black men or calling in 10 units and a K-9 during an equipment violation stop.

Plus, the Starbucks worker was "pulling holiday duty" too.

[Runningdawg]

34. And for the past 4 days this has been the ONLY news out of OK

Top story in every newspaper and on every channel. They post the story fresh at the top of every hour to social media. London? New Orleans shooting? Impeachment? Nope, cops getting called pigs. I will wager 1/2 the churches heard a sermon about it today as well.

[JonLP24]

38. That was quick compared to when a barista wrote ISIS on a Muslim's man cup

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/08/30/man-islamic-dress-told-starbucks-employee-his-name-was-aziz-she-put-isis-cup/%3foutputType=amp

[hunter]

49. What a bullshit story.

Note to cops:

Roll your eyes, say something like "Ha, ha, that's not really funny."

Ask them to make the coffee over again in cups that don't say "pig."

Stare at them sternly as they do their job correctly.

Forget about it.

You are not a delicate flower.

Teachers deal with worse shit than this every fucking day, and in some schools, many times a day. And they don't wear guns.

My wife's sister has a high school class this year that most cops wouldn't be able to handle, they'd run away and never return.

Years ago when I was teaching I had a kid moon me.

It was all I could do not to laugh or say something snarky.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

53. There are other takes to this.

This article has a good collection of the twitter posts about it.

https://newsone.com/3895341/cop-accused-lying-starbucks-cup/

[dware]

68. Twitter?

You're going to use twitter as a news source?

[Cuthbert Allgood]

83. Um, no. I believe the link is to News One.

They compile, as a news source does, information from Twitter.

Do you have anything to say about the content? Is it so far out of the realm of possibility that this police officer lied?

[PJMcK]

57. Starbucks?!

What a waste!

We were driving home along the NJ Turnpike and stopped at a rest area to use the rest rooms and get fuel. The line at Starbucks cascaded into the main waiting area! Good for their business, I guess. I have to wonder about the customers' judgment, though.

Why would anyone pay $6 for a cup of coffee with a fancy name served by a minimum wage worker with a fancy name?

[LanternWaste]

60. Thankfully, the oppressed victims did not arrest nor shoot anyone in this instance.

[Blue_true]

70. What was done was stupid. The police officer had a right to be offended. nt

[TheBlackAdder]

71. It looks like it was a web order, notice that there are no witnesses to the employee's confession.

.

Web orders are denoted by placing asterisks before and after the name. That is only set by the customer.

Starbucks also filters on certain names from being used at the counter, and I believe pig is one of them.

If you look at the cup, it says *PIG*.


Starbucks's silence might indicate that they could be planning how to pursue legal options against this officer.

.

[Blue_true]

72. The article said Starbucks fired the server.

If I was running such a business and someone places an order with me that require me to call them an insulting name, I will either ask them directly to choose another name and if the order is placed remotely, call them to make the same request.

[TheBlackAdder]

73. The cup says CAFE not MOBILE, but that might appear when paying with your phone app at counter.

.

It will use the stored profile name that the client defines and automatically generate the labels without typing.

I think there is more to this story that will soon come out.

.

[FreeState]

80. Starbucks hasn't been silent

https://stories.starbucks.com/stories/2019/joint-statement-from-starbucks-and-kiefer-okla-police-after-regrettable-incident/

[NYC Liberal]

74. His daughter posted on Twitter that he is racist and "absolutely a pig"

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[dware]

79. How do we know this is really his daughter

and not some fake Twitter account to try to embarrass the officer?

Regardless, the Barista already admitted to it and apologized and was terminated, rightly so.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

86. The police officer said the barista admitted it.

I have seen nothing from the barista.

[dware]

87. You really think Starbucks didn't investigate this?

You really think they just terminated the employee just because of an allegation and leave themselves open to a wrongful termination lawsuit?

I'm very confident that Starbucks management interviewed the employee and determined that this did happen and they took the appropriate action.

Why would Barista go public and possibly make it harder to get another job?

[Cuthbert Allgood]

88. You really think the police officer couldn't have just blown this up?

You really think there is no way we don't have the full information yet?

I fully understand why the barista didn't go public. But the "the barista admitted they did it" only comes from the police office. Which could be bullshit.

[dware]

92. Again, Starbucks would have investigated the claim

interviewed the employee and then make their decision, if for no other reason than to avoid a lawsuit.

Starbucks terminating the employee pretty much speaks for itself.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

93. I don't think it's ever that easy.

How is your approach different than "well, the police officer must have been right to shoot that black man because the police department investigated and didn't fire him."

There could be all kinds of reasons why Starbucks reacted like they did. Social media explosion high among them.

[dware]

97. You do have a point,

but until there's proof that the officer lied and Starbucks says it was a wrongful termination, then I'll believe that the incident really happened.

We're obviously not going to agree with each other, so I'll wish you a happy Tuesday as I've got to get on down the road and pick up my next load.
Peace out.

[Kaleva]

99. The fired employee said one of the baristas did it

"After nine months as a manager, Price said she was fired for something she didn't do and explained that she wasn't the one who printed "PIG" on the label.

That was done, she says, by one of the baristas."

https://ktul.com/news/local/starbucks-manager

[radius777]

75. Please, big strong cops can't have a thicker skin

and accept some kid's apology (if this is actually what happened, could've been a web hoax as others have noted).

Weird how quickly a barista can get fired for insulting a cop, yet cops keep their jobs even when killing people in cold blood on a daily basis.

And no, rebellious insults (such as "pig" ) against authority figures are not the same as insults (such as the n word) against historically oppressed groups.

[whathehell]

81. Why should they have to?

No, sorry, no one's entitled to keep their jobs after calling customers "pigs" or any other slur.

[dware]

82. This is rather unsettling here on a liberal website,

if this slur had been against a POC, gay person, etc., these same people would be screaming to high heaven for Starbucks to fire the person.

Fricken amazing.

[whathehell]

89. Uh, yes.. The hypocrisy is remarkable.

Blanket hatred of cops is apparently "okay" with some here. I find it stupid, ugly and dangerous.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

94. I don't have a blanket hatred.

I also don't have a blanket respect for all they do.

It would not surprise me that either the barista did this OR that the cop set this up. I don't think we have the full story yet. Sorry that my skepticism is somehow "stupid, ugly and dangerous."

[Cuthbert Allgood]

84. What if they didn't do that though?

What if the alternate discussions of how this happened are correct and the cop set this up?

I am shocked that so many here are just hopping on the side of the cop.

[whathehell]

90. Um, well obviously that'.would be a different story..

The thread is based on the assumption it DID happen .. If it did NOT happen, it's a different conversation.

[dware]

91. You don't think Starbucks investigated the incident before terminating the employee?

If for no other reason than to avoid a wrongful termination lawsuit?

[Cuthbert Allgood]

96. "Wrongful termination"?

Most Starbucks employees are at will so Starbucks can fire them for the great reason of "Because we want to."

Starbucks is 100% going to care more about their image and brand on social media than one barista in one store.

[dware]

100. But do you agree that this cop is likely telling the truth,

especially in light of recent developments?

[coti]

95. Why the fuck is shit like this news?

Why are my neurons routinely being wasted on this meaningless, dividing tripe in our "news" reporting?

[pintobean]

98. It's a mass conspiracy.

Everyone's out to get you.

[coti]

102. More likely the human brain can't maintain focus on what affects its well-being nt

[kelly1mm]

101. "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes ......." nt