The owners of a Chick-fil-A in Georgia are apologizing to the Clover Police Department after an officer said he experienced racial discrimination at the restaurant.
Channel 2 Action NewsSister station WSOC spoke with officials about the experience and they hope it will lead to change.
“I felt a little humiliated and embarrassed by the whole situation. It seemed to me like it was a racial issue,” said Clover Police Sgt. Tracey Reid.
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Reid said the experience occurred at Chick-fil-A in Augusta during a work trip a few weeks ago. He and three other CPD officers entered the restaurant for breakfast. Reid is black; the other three officers are white.
“We walked in together, in the same uniform, we stood in line, there was never a moment where we weren’t together while we stood in line,” Reid said.
They say the three white officers were offered a complimentary meal, which they say is often offered to law enforcement at the popular restaurant chain. But when Reid got to the register, he had to pay.
“He said he had to pay for his food and that made me angry,” Detective Thomas Barnette said. “And I said, ‘Do you want me to go say something?’ He said, ‘No, I don’t want you to make a scene,’ but I noticed the way he looked; “He just looked at his plate, he seemed sad and humiliated and that made me very angry.”
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Ultimately, Reid wrote a letter to the Chick-fil-A company, demanding that the chain retrain employees at the Augusta location and strengthen corporate policies on compliance with civil rights laws.
Reid and the other officers were not satisfied with the Augusta store manager’s response, which included two free meal cards.
“He said it was perceived to be a racial incident, which I didn’t like, because it wasn’t perceived; it actually happened,” Reid said.
“He’s not the only one who perceived it. We all did, and it’s not a perception, it’s what happened. It was a racial issue,” Barnette said.
The manager’s letter included an apology. He said the person who processed the food was a team leader who does not normally work the register, and the manager called the incident a mistake.
Chick-fil-A Augusta owner and operator Kenny Hanna shared a statement with Channel 2 Action News.
“We regret the unintentional impact this incident had and sincerely apologize to our guest. We were deeply concerned by this claim. It appears to have been an honest oversight on separate lines and records. We are firmly committed to supporting our community’s first responders.”
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