After Criticizing Jackson Coffee Shop's Police Support Sign, Bar Worker Fired

JACKSON, MO — A black Missouri bar worker who criticized a coffee shop on Facebook for displaying a "Back the Blue" sign supporting police says she was fired and told people wouldn't drink there if she was allowed to stay.

Brandi Wilson told the Southeast Missourian newspaper that she found the sign at The Ground-A-Bout in Jackson, Missouri, disconcerting as an African-American who used to live in Ferguson, where police clashed violently with protesters following the 2014 police shooting death of Michael Brown.

Wilson, a college student in Cape Girardeau, said she was fired from the Barrel 131 bar in Jackson after criticizing the sign in an Aug. 8 posting on The Ground-A-Bout's Facebook page. In the post, Wilson said the sign made her "super uncomfortable" and was "almost like a shouting 'Black lives don't matter' sign." (For more information on this and other Missouri stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Ground-A-Bout owner Bob Schooley, a former sheriff's deputy, responded with a post saying he was sorry for Wilson's negative experience.

"Our support of law enforcement is IN NO WAY whatsoever stating that 'black lives don't matter,'" Schooley wrote. "We'll be disappointed to lose your business ma'am, but the sign will remain."

Hundreds of people weighed in with comments, many denouncing Wilson. The bar owners fired Wilson a day later.

"I know that's why I was fired, and that's the reason they told me," Wilson said. "They didn't give me some runaround. They said, 'No. It's just that there are people who will not come drink here if you're working here.'"

Barrel 131 owners didn't immediately return messages to The Associated Press seeking comment.

The Ground-A-Bout later posted that it doesn't view the sign as political.

Wilson said her firing "tells people they shouldn't respectfully stand up for themselves and say what things bother them."

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