Houston Starbucks employee fired over "Defund The Police" cup message
HOUSTON - A Houston Starbucks employee has been fired after printing the message “Defund the Police” on customers' drinks.
A spokesperson with Starbucks says the employee only printed the message on one family's order, which included three drinks with the printed message.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, an outraged customer posted photos of the drinks and said it happened at the I-10 and Kirkwood location.
Raseac Eibbed's post read, in part, “This has to stop. We can’t even get a cup of coffee without worrying about being poisoned or worse. What is wrong with America?”
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The customer says her ex-husband who made the order does not work in law enforcement and was not in any type of uniform when the incident happened.
Ray Hunt with the Houston Police Officer Union says he was extremely offended to learn about the employee’s actions.
"It wouldn't be the first time that an officer who's had something put in their drink at a restaurant or somewhere where someone disagreed with the police. I was very disgusted that someone will post this in the way it was printed on they're concerned us that maybe this was a policy for Starbucks," Hunt said.
Hunt believes professionals from athletes to coffee baristas need to keep their political views to themselves.
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"We go to a Texans game to watch football. We go to an Astros game to watch baseball. We go to Starbucks to get a cup of coffee. If the people would just keep their politics to themselves, we'd get along a lot better around here. You've got a job to do, do it. We're not walking around with shirts on that say support the police whenever we're coming to your house when you call 911. I think most people who go to Starbucks go there to get a cup of coffee, not to hear about the barista's political views," Hunt said.
A spokesperson with Starbucks says that after an internal investigation, the employee was suspended within hours of the customer’s complaint and later fired.
"Every customer should feel welcome and treated with respect when they visit any of our stores – especially our first responder community and their families. We have reached out to the customer involved to apologize, and the partner (employee) involved has been separated from the company. Any behavior from our partners that doesn’t aspire to be a positive experience is unacceptable,” said Starbucks in a statement.
Starbucks has also apologized repeatedly on multiple social media posts.