Early this month, Officer Jennifer Martin of the Pembroke Pines (Fla.) Police Department, went into an Arby’s restaurant to order dinner but was refused service. When she asked the manager why, he said it was because she was a cop.
When the Pembroke Pines police chief heard about the ridiculous slight, he demanded an apology and caused a public relations nightmare for the company. Arby’s reported several days later that the employee, Kenneth Davenport, had been suspended and the manager fired.
But there are suspensions and then are suspensions. And Davenport’s “suspension” is more like a paid vacation and includes receiving his regular paycheck!
A spokesman for Arby’s told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the company and the employee, Davenport, 19, mutually agreed that the he would go on temporary paid leave.
“That’s where things stand at this point,” Jason Rollins, an Arby’s spokesman, told TheDCNF.
The employees have since said the entire incident was a misunderstood joke and that Davenport was just too busy to serve her.
He has since added that he doesn’t hate police. Arby’s gave the officer a refund and has apologized. Arby’s offered free food to police officers in two Florida counties as a way to save face after the incident, but local news could only find one officer who took the offer.
“We once again apologize to the police officer involved and the Dade-Broward County police community for this isolated incident,” the company said in a statement. “Arby’s has always been and will always continue to be a champion of the police in every community across America.”
This report, by Casey Harper, was cross-posted by arrangement with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
