It is known that the public and the police have a complicated relationship. While the hardworking and honest officers sure do deserve the praise, some of them are bashed for uncalled violence and racism. Recently, one controversial story set in Kiefer, Oklahoma, went viral and people on the internet were divided into two groups.
This Thanksgiving, an Oklahoma police officer made a Starbucks run for emergency dispatchers as a ‘thank you’ gesture for working on holidays. According to him, when he got back his order, it had the word “PIG” printed on the cup’s label.
More info: Twitter
One officer from Oklahoma was appalled after receiving his Starbucks drinks with the word “PIG” on them
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The officer, a member of the Kiefer police department, took the order to the dispatchers and got in touch with the police chief Johnny O’Mara to inform about the Starbucks situation. When the Chief called the Starbucks, its manager offered to reprint the cups, to which the chief responded was an ‘insufficient apology.’ Then, according to the officer, the barista who made the order contacted him, apologized and said that it was meant as a joke. “What irks me is the absolute and total disrespect for a police officer who, instead of being home with his family and enjoying a meal and a football game, is patrolling his little town,” Johnny O’Mara later said in the Facebook post, which has since been taken down.
People on Facebook were furious about the “PIG” label
Starbucks almost instantly released a statement in which they said that the barista in question has been fired
Image credits: Starbucks
“This is absolutely unacceptable, and we are deeply sorry to the law enforcement officer who experienced this. We have also apologized directly to him and connected with the Chief of the Kiefer Police Department as well to express our remorse.
The Starbucks partner who wrote this offensive word on a cup used poor judgment and is no longer a partner after this violation of company policy.
This language is offensive to all law enforcement and is not representative of the deep appreciation we have for police officers who work tirelessly to keep our communities safe,” Starbucks writes.
But Twitter wasn’t having any of it
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Especially when some people were beginning to have doubts about the legitimacy of the accusations
Image credits: Johny O’Mara
“Starbucks has a profanity filter in place to prevent things like this from happening. the only way for the name “pig” to show up on a cup is for the customer to set that as their own name in the mobile order app. In other words, the pig cops faked this for a sob story,” one person wrote in a now-viral tweet.
Image credits: argumentwinner
Image credits: argumentwinner
Image credits: argumentwinner
The story got even weirder when a young woman claiming to be Chief O’Mara’s daughter stepped in
Image credits: MissOMara
UPDATE: It was later discovered that the police officer fabricated the whole story
After an investigation conducted by Herington Police, it was determined that police officer who reported the incident actually fabricated the entire story. HPD Chief Brian Hornaday explained that the officer in question has since then been stripped of his duties.
In a press conference, Chief Hornaday explained that the employee providing the coffee had nothing to do with the incident. The police officer, who was not identified, presumably for security reasons, has only been on the force for two months at that point.
The investigation also included the store’s video footage clearly showing that it couldn’t have been the employee that did this. They have reviewed the footage from every possible angle and have come to the conclusion that the employee in question couldn’t have possibly written the defamatory phrase.
The Chief also explained that this will leave a negative mark on the already notorious reputation of US law enforcement. Over the years, police brutality has become a serious and controversial issue with many people beginning to fear the police rather than viewing them as a force of civil protection.
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