No Cops Allowed

My uncle owned a couple of restaurants for years in the Hollywood area. He was a good restauranteur and a smart man. He always made it his business to get to know the police officers on the beat and treat them with respect.

More than that, he gave them a sizable discount when they ate at his restaurants. When I asked about it, he once told me, "It's good business. The cops know me, they like me and I like them. And they know I treat them right so they make a point of watching over our restaurant and keeping us extra safe."

That was many years ago, but my uncle's philosophy is just as valid today. However, it seems some restaurant operators today just aren't as savvy as my uncle was. A recent case in point would be Hilda and Jessie, a trendy woke phony baloney place in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood who actually refused to wait on three uniformed police officers who came in to eat last Friday.

The three officers were asked to leave the brunch spot and the restaurant posted an explanation on its Instagram channel Saturday that read: "The restaurant is a safe space.

The presence of the officers' weapons in the restaurant made us feel uncomfortable. We respect the San Francisco Police Department and are grateful for the work they do. We welcome them into the restaurant when they are off duty, out of uniform and without their weapons." In other words, no cops wanted in here! This is a police free space.

But the explanation kept changing. Claiming at first that the officers' guns were making customers "feel uncomfortable," then at another point saying that the guns made some of their employees "feel uncomfortable" leads me to conclude that the owners of this place are liars who simply do not want police officers in their establishment.

Well, their statement brought about a monumental outcry on social media, including a response from San Francisco Chief of Police William Scott, who said his department "stands for safety with respect, even when it means respecting wishes that our officers and I find discouraging and personally disappointing."

One person posted, "How disrespectful and entitled of the business to treat people like this who risk their lives to protect us. It's a bit heartbreaking actually."

John Perri, another social media poster, agreed. "So bummed this happened in my neighborhood," he wrote. "Never had the food at this new restaurant. But it could not possibly be good enough to cover the bad taste this leaves."

When North Beach business owner Joseph Zira learned that three on duty San Francisco Police officers were recently denied service on Union Street, just two blocks from Central station he said, "I hope one day, they don't need the police, and don't need help."

After the barrage of negative backlash on social media, the restaurant owners backtracked on Sunday with an apology on Instagram. "We made a mistake and apologize for the unfortunate incident on Friday when we asked members of the San Francisco Police Department to leave our restaurant," they said. "These are stressful times and we handled this badly."

"We are grateful to all members of the force who work hard to keep us safe, especially during these challenging times." Too little too late as far as I'm concerned. They've shown themselves to be the hateful progressive elitists that they are and the only reason they attempted an apology at all is because they realized how many people were put off by their negative attitudes towards the police. They knew their entire business would be hurt if they didn't apologize.

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The San Francisco Police Officer's Association said in a statement, "Three-foot beat officers looking to eat where they patrol were treated without any tact or class by this establishment, fortunately there are plenty of restaurants that don't discriminate and will welcome our officers working to try and keep all San Franciscans safe."

I couldn't agree more. And it applies to all of us. Life is too short and way too precious to patronize businesses whose values are clearly the opposite from our own. Spend your money in places that respect law and order and don't support those who obviously don't want your business anyway.

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