The owner of a barbecue joint in North Carolina has apologized for his employees’ impromptu concert for cops as they ate — a rendition of the N.W.A.’s “F— Tha Police.”
David Harris, owner of Smithfield’s Chicken ‘n Bar-B-Q in Garner, promised to conduct an investigation and to fire anyone who “doesn’t share our respect of all law enforcement” officers after reports of the incident surfaced on Friday.
“Thank you Smithfield’s Chicken & Barbeque Jones Sausage location for the class and professionalism as you sang ‘F the Police’ as my brother sat Raleigh Police Department attempted to ate at your restaurant,” a member of the Raleigh Police Protective Association wrote in a now-deleted post on Facebook.
Matthew Cooper, the union’s president, said a couple officers were in the restaurant when employees began to sing the seminal hit from N.W.A.’s 1988 albumn, “Straight Outta Compton.” Cooper declined to give an exact number of employees, but the original Facebook post claimed that the manager was singing as well.
“This is something that, unfortunately, officers have to deal with now on a regular basis,” Cooper told the Raleigh News & Observer.
Cooper thanked restaurant officials for their support and quick response in a subsequent Facebook post, but reiterated that everyone deserves respect, including police officers.
“We are confident that a positive resolution will occur as a result from our effort,” Cooper wrote. “Currently, the conversation between some people on the previous posts have deviated from our original mission which was to raise awareness to that particular situation and to show what police officers have to face now on a regular basis. For that reason, we decided to delete the original post.”
Cooper said he was “comforted” that the community at large supports law enforcement officers.
“We believe that all people should be treated with dignity and respect,” Cooper’s post continued. “Our officers do their best to complete this mission every day.”
Rick Armstrong, a member of the police union, said anyone who sang the song as cops ate should be suspended or fired.
“Police officers go out there every day and they risk their lives and to be treated with such disrespect is truly unfortunate,” he told WTVD. “We do appreciate [Cooper’s] quick response and we’re going to wait and see what he does, and hopefully, he follows up with appropriate action on these employees.”
Messages seeking additional comment from Harris were not immediately returned Monday.
