You might think that the local coffee shop would be a safe haven from political prejudice, a place where people could gather together in a shared love for their daily brew. But in recent years, the world’s largest coffee chain, Starbucks, has often been at the center of partisan controversy, such as a controversial April 2018 arrest in a Philadelphia store.
Then, things got heated in a Starbucks in Tempe, Arizona, on July 4, 2019, where a customer repeatedly approached a barista about being anxious of police officers waiting in line for their drinks. According to the Tempe Officers’ Association, “The barista said that a customer ‘did not feel safe’ because of the police presence.” The officers tweeted that, “The barista asked the officers to move out of the customer’s line of sight or to leave.”
