A Detroit-based vegan ice cream shop has come under fire for its policy to refuse to serve armor-clad police officers.
Cold Truth owner owner Tim Mahoney shared his store’s new policy via an Instagram story Thursday. The post showed a Detroit Police car parked on the wrong side of the street in front of the shop with a caption that read, “we can tolerate the parking however you please, but we will not serve anyone wearing body armor.”
Mahoney followed up later with a Facebook post that clarified the position.
“Cold Truth is a family/community ice cream spot. There are times when various units come through and are outfitted in heavy duty tactical gear, it is disturbing and unsettling for some of the families in our space,” the post said.
“In the last 24 hours It has come to my attention that the City of Detroit outfits EMS and FIRE with armor and this is not my concern. It’s the heavy duty military dress that I’m hoping the city can find a way to minimize in our public spaces.”
Screenshots of the original post caught fire online, which resulted in dozens of readers flooding the establishment with one-star reviews, ABC affiliate WXYZ Detroit reported.
“We’re definitely getting national people kind of coming in and weighing in and calling and stuff like that,” owner Tim Mahoney told the outlet. “It’s unfortunate people are spending their time doing this.”
The ice cream shop owner said they’ve never turned law enforcement away.
“(We’re) not anti-police,” Mahoney continued. “We just think the militarization of the dress and the cars being blacked out, it’s intimidating.”
“I am vehemently against the heavy tactical gear and I want to be apart of the conversation that minimizes that,” Mahoney said. “It’s just the uniform, it’s the Kevlar, it’s that dress. We ask that after the shift, please come by.”
Detroit Police Department Chief James White blasted the shop for its stance in a statement.
“Law enforcement is a dangerous profession,” White wrote. “Body armor provides our officers protection and is an essential part of the police uniform. It is the desire of each and every member of the Detroit Police Department to fulfill their duties as a law enforcement officer and at the end of their shift return home to their loved ones.”
Many members of the community seemed to side with the police.
“You know, police officers wear body armor for the same reason firefighters and paramedics do,” one Facebook comment with almost 500 likes says. “People shoot at them, and they need to be protected. And if you ever saw pictures of the armor military personnel wear, you would know that it is not the same. But, you hate cops, so you should just admit that.”
“As some who has lived in Detroit all my life and I’m not talking about the surrounding areas of Detroit, as a black female with black brothers/sisters, as someone who has protested police brutality, as someone with family in some of the worst parts of Detroit. I’m tired of y’all fake woke liberals,” another person wrote.
“We literally have one of the deadliest zip codes in the country just a few weeks ago multiple police cars were lit up on different days. If them walking around with gear on to keep safe makes you uncomfortable go back to the suburbs. If you live in Detroit you should know downtown is wild in the summer period.”