Photo via Boycott the Red and Black Cafe (Facebook).
Officers and supporters of law enforcement have organized an online boycott of the Red and Black Cafe in Portland (Ore.), where an officer was served coffee and then asked to leave.
A Facebook page calling itself "Boycott the Red and Black Cafe, Portland OR" has drawn more than 19,000 supporters with links from groups such as "Blue Ribbon Campaign-Police Deserve a Cup of Coffee" and "Buy a Police Officer a Cup of Coffee Day." Also, a Facebook group calling itself "Boycott The Red and Black Cafe in Portland" formed to support the officer.
The page was created to "exercise my right to 'never, ever' enter this cafe, and would encourage others to do the same," according to the page.
Links on the page mostly include news updates of the incident and a video of co-owner John Langley explaining why he served Officer James Crooker and then asked him to leave.
In the video, Langley and other supporters say the cafe is a "safe space" from police brutality. One cafe supporter accuses the Portland Police Bureau's officers of racial profiling and refers to the May 12 shooting of Keaton Otis.
"We believe that the primary role of the police is not to keep us safe, but rather to profile and arrest people in an attempt to maintain a status quo built upon race, class and gender lines," says Chris Knudtsen, a member of a group calling itself Rose City Copwatch.
Officers exchanged gunfire with Otis during the incident after pulling him over. The 25-year-old Otis didn't immediately pull over after making several unsignaled lane changes. He then yelled profanities at four officers, was unfazed by several TASER shots, and pulled a 9mm handgun from his glove box. He fired two shots, striking Officer Christopher Burley in the groin. Three other officers fired back a total of 32 shots, striking Otis 23 times.