Chick-fil-A has issued a grovelling apology after a Black cop was forced to pay for a meal while his white colleagues were given their food for free.
Tracey Reid, a sergeant in the Clover Police Department in South Carolina, said that he felt "humiliated" during the incident, which he feels was racially motivated.
Reid said that the incident occurred in a Georgia branch of the fast food chain a few weeks ago.
He told WOSC that he was standing with his colleagues while they were in line for their order and that they were clearly in the “same uniform.”
However, when they were given their food for free, Reid was told that he needed to pay.
“I was kind of humiliated and embarrassed, you know, at the whole situation. It seemed like it was a racial issue to me,” he said.
Chick-fil-A Augusta owner-operator Kenny Hanna shared a statement with Channel 2 Action News in which he described the incident as an “oversight.”
“We regret the unintentional impact this incident had and sincerely apologize to our guest,” the apology read. “We were deeply concerned by this claim.
“It appears to have been an honest oversight across separate lines and registers. We are strongly committed to supporting our community’s first responders.”
Reid said that he had written a letter to the brand’s corporate office, demanding that they retrain its employees at the location in Augusta. He also said that the company needed to strengthen its nationwide policies to comply with civil rights laws.
In response, he was given two free meal cards and an apology from Chick-fil-A, which stated that the person who processed the meal was not usually at the register.
“It said it was perceived that it was a racial incident, which I didn’t like, because it wasn’t perceived; it actually happened,” Reid said.
His colleague, detective Thomas Barnette, said that Reid was not “the only one that perceived it.”
“We all did, and it’s not perception, it’s what happened. It was a racial issue,” he added.
Barnette offered to “say something” while police officers were in the restaurant, but he says that Reid did not want to “cause a scene.”
“But I could tell the way he looked; he just looked at his plate, he looked sad and humiliated, and that made me really mad,” he said.
The Independent has contacted Chick-fil-A and Clover Police for further comment.
