Detroit food truck owner says she received online threats after refusing to serve cops

The owner of a Detroit food truck said she was threatened online by Trump supporters and All Lives Matter activists after announcing last week that she wouldn’t serve police officers.

Rocky Coronado, owner of Rocky’s Road Brew in Detroit, wrote on Facebook that she would not serve police officers, The Detroit News reported on Saturday, a day after the online post.

“The majority of my neighbors, customers, and myself do not feel safe around law enforcement agents (ICE, DPD, Homeland Security, etc),” Coronado wrote, referencing the acronyms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Detroit Police Department. “I have asked friends from the National Lawyers Guild and I am well within my rights to refuse service to law enforcement agents.”

{mosads}”This for the safety of my neighbors and customers (who have all become friends) and myself,” Coronado wrote in the post, which included a photo that read: “We reserve the right to refuse service to cops.”

The post ended with the hashtags #blacklivesmatter and #refugeeswelcome.

Coronado wrote the next day that she had been harassed online.

“Since then All Lives Matter, ‘Patriots,’ MAGA, & ‘Christians’ have been slandering, threatening, and harassing the business via Facebook,” a Saturday Facebook post read. “These people, their code switching, their hate, their ignorance shows me I’m on the right path. These people are the threat to freedom, equality, & peace in America.”

“As a brown queer person in America, I am well aware that my very being is a threat to Amerikkka and its lineage of genocide, fragility, and hate,” Coronado wrote. “My very existence is my resistance and just like my ancestors, I am resilient. So despite the hate and slander, I am well.”

Detroit Police Chief James Craig told The Detroit News that Coronado has had a contentious relationship with the local police department.

“Generally speaking, we have good relations in that neighborhood, but my officers tell me whenever they’ve been in that area investigating criminal matters, she’s been uncooperative and rude,” Craig said.

“She has clearly shown disdain for police; the million-dollar question is: Why? We’d like to know what the issue is, and would like to sit down and talk to her about her concerns,” Craig said. “I don’t agree with what she’s putting on Facebook, but if she ever needs help we’ll give her the same service we’d give anyone else.”

Detroit Police Officers Association President Mark Diaz told the newspaper that the food truck’s Facebook post was an example of the “anti-cop movement.”

“Unfortunately, we live in a society where the media has sensationalized a lot of the anti-cop movement,” he said. “It’s really just a small segment of society, but these squeaky wheels make the most noise, and they criticize everything police do.”

“But it’s their right if they choose not to serve police officers,” Diaz said. “It just shows that person’s mentality — but under no circumstances would we refuse service to them.”

Coronado wrote on Saturday that her previous post was prompted by a confrontation with two individuals wearing bulletproof vests and badges, later identifying themselves as officers with the Humane Society.

“Yesterday, two people came by in a unmarked, black suburban with tinted windows both with bulletproof vests and badges,” she wrote. “I do not serve law enforcement (ICE, Homeland Security, DPD, etc) so I told em I was closed to not make a tense situation more so. They then circled back around with a lady (still with bulletproof vest and badge) getting out of her vehicle asking why I didn’t serve them.”

Coronado wrote that she refused service when customers nearby were being harassed and photographed during the confrontation.

An Oakland, Calif., coffee shop faced criticism in March after denying service to a local police officer, citing a policy of protecting “the physical and emotional safety” of its customers.