So What Really Happened at the Brooklyn Heights Chipotle and Serving the NYPD?

By on December 29, 2014 11:46 am in News

Chances are some of your Facebook friends are outraged or “shocked, shocked” at the alleged behavior of employees at the Montague Street Chipotle.

The story goes something like this according to mythbusting site Snopes.com:

Employees at a Chipotle Mexican Grill in Brooklyn refused service to eight uniformed NYPD officers after making a “hands up, don’t shoot” gesture to indicate their distaste for the policemen.

The Facebook meme, seen here posted by someone decribing themselves as a teacher in the Brooklyn Roman Catholic Diocese reads:

However, this statement, Snopes says, is misleading and could be interpreted that all the employees at the restaurant were in league against the NYPD.

Chipotle has issues a statement and Snopes notes:

In short, Chipotle reviewed video footage of the NYPD officers’ visit to the Montague St. location and determined that what transpired involved not “the crew” of that outlet but a single employee who acted alone and has since been reprimanded. Chipotle has explicitly stated the behavior of that employee was neither condoned nor ignored (although they have not yet offered specifics of how the issue was handled). Chipotle confirmed that the eight NYPD officers were not denied service but rather left the restaurant of their own volition.

Ironically, the same Chipotle store caught heat in 2012 for offering NYPD officers a discount on meals.

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  • Joe A

    Quite a fashion leader you are. :-)

  • Joe A

    The new BENGHAZI, BENGHAZI, BENGHAZI is now SHARPTON, SHARPTON, SHARPTON!

  • GHB

    Of the eight officers who tried to go to Chipotle, I see no evidence that any of them are in any way connected to the Eric Garner case.

  • MonroeOrange

    oh now the post is credible? i remember when i put a link to the post about a negative citibike article, everyone on here said the post is a joke.

    Happy New Year Mr. Crusty!

  • Heights Correspondent 1

    Notice something? Most of
    comment sources who have
    “materialized on this issue
    have never or very rarely
    been heard from…so who
    or what activated these types?
    Hmmm…

  • Jazz

    Perhaps, but they are guilty of unfortunate diet choices.

  • Complicated

    It is horrific that someone had to die. Horrific. And pointless. But I used to do that when I was 12 in street fights: “I cant breathe!” or “Ow, my arm/leg/foot!” And then when the sucker let go, I clocked him. That is why they did not stop. They have seen it before and cannot put themselves in danger. Officers are here help enforce the rule of law. Without that, we have nothing. He needed to have gone with the officers and worked out what he thought was unfair through legal means – not resist arrest. You cannot run from the police. And you cannot say, “nevermind” in the middle of a fight with an officer.

  • Ray Sykes

    First of all the LEO’s who entered the restaurant didn’t break any laws in doing so, just like the officers who had to restrain the criminal who was selling in excess of $150,000 of cigarettes illegally and avoiding taxes and who then resisted arrest. I guess if you don’t want to get hurt you should not be breaking the law right?

  • MonroeOrange

    yours is one of the few names i never heard from before…..?

  • Fritz

    Another right wing echo chamber attack. The 8 cops were there to get a NYPD- prohibited cheapo meal. An example of police impunity. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/nyregion/at-chipotle-an-unofficial-and-prohibited-discount-for-officers.html?pagewanted=2&ref=nyregion&pagewanted=all The precinct house is about 6 blocks from the Chipotle, not a quick trip next door for the cops, were they on the clock? The event took place before the attack on the patrol officers by a deranged man from Baltimore. Hands up don’t shoot is a legitimate act of free speech, took some courage to do in front of 8 heavily armed men.

  • Heights Correspondent 1

    Well, neighbor youths last week met
    The protesters near the St George
    with the taunt; “pants up!.. Don’t loot!
    which while largely deserved, sums up
    the level of debate in this..

  • ltap917

    “hands up, don’t shoot” was a lie from the beginning.

  • Heights Correspondent 1

    You know, ALL of you should stop
    and consider how really fortunate
    you are to be Americans.

    What if you tried to have these
    protests any place in Africa?..
    or say, South America? What
    do you think would happen to
    all of you?

  • Joe A

    $150,000 of cigarettes? Damn he musta had some deep pockets.

    Source for you ridiculous claim?

  • Joe A

    If we had a trial we would have been able to determine that.

  • Joe A

    Is that the standard you hold America to? That we are better than some banana republic in South America or some third world country in Africa?

  • Joe A

    Are you disputing the NY Post story (which is now being reported everywhere), a newspaper that is solidly pro police? Or do you just spew out whatever comes into your rather challenged mind?

  • Heights Correspondent 1

    Yes, incidents like this and the free if
    not always responsible debate about
    What happened should remind EVERY
    ONE before anything further just how
    Good it is to be in a country where
    You all have the precious constitutional
    to openly state your views. Yes, every
    public official’s action should be open
    to fair and open review. But so should
    be the actions of those critical of the
    alleged actions.

    I see ALL of what has gone on here
    First I say GOD BLESS AMERICA..and
    then a make Sure to remember this
    Country in my prayers…

    If any of you only knew what goes on
    In so many less fortunate lands…

  • ShinyNewHandle

    I think “Heights Correspondent 1″ posted earlier this year as “cindy sm”. I have noticed that those old “cindy sm” posts have been deleted. HC1 can correct me if I’m wrong.

    Signed, ShinyNewHandle (formerly DoM)

  • Heights Correspondent 1

    No I just became personally active
    but my views are I’m sure held by
    others.

  • Andrew Porter

    Can’t we all get along? Oh, sorry, I guess not…

  • Andrew Porter

    Heated if very anonymous comments about this, here:

    http://gothamist.com/2014/12/30/chipotle_cops_sorry.php

  • Joe A

    fight with an officer? You saw him fighting with the officers (what was it 6 or 7 officers that jumped on top of him?). Perhaps he was “resisting” by not immediately cooperating but he was not “fighting” or presenting any risk to the officers that I observed on the video.

    I was an officer for 20 years and people resist (by not cooperating) arrest all the time. You use the minimal force necessary to get him in cuffs. You do not apply a chokehold that has been banned by your own department because it is too dangerous (reckless), throw him to the ground, push his head into the concrete with all of your body weight and don’t relent when he cries out he can’t breathe 11 times. Reprehensible and illegal police behavior.

    If you think that what the officers did to Eric Garner was appropriate then we have a very different viewpoint of what policing should be in a democratic society.

  • Reggie

    Let me take off some pounds first and then I will try to upgrade my wardrobe. I see that leaving my shirt open, an attempt to hide the size of my gut, has exactly the opposite effect, drawing attention to it.

  • Karen ‘Kay’ Valentin

    Many of us are boycotting chipotle until the employee gets fired. This is the problem today – there are no consequences for ignorance.

  • Nancy B

    SHARPGHAZI!

  • Nancy B

    I’m all for boycotting businesses for corporate-based actions I deem inappropriate. You won’t catch me dead in a Hobby Lobby, Chik-fil-A or Walmart. But this is a single employee. The company has apologized, and has disciplined the employee. The employee’s actions did not indicate intended malice, just unprofessionalism. No company fires an otherwise good employee for making a single mistake like that. Warning, probation, smaller or no pay raise, or training are all that should logically happen here.

  • Fritz

    Regarding Valentin and boycott. I’m thinking of starting to patronize Chipotle, if in fact they DIDN’t discipline the employee. Remember this “incident” happened before the police shooting. Remember that the police in the store were likely violating their patrol rules on taking gratuities on work time. Read the Times article from 2 years ago.

  • Invicta

    Hey Fritz,… next time you need a cop, I hope they read your blog first. If you were capable of understanding, I would explain. But your comment is so far left, so detached from understanding what a cops life is like, or military life, is like, that any intelligent attempt to feed reason into the vaccuum between your ears would be useless. Thanks for sharing your ignorance – it gives us (with a true moral compass & sense of logic and justice) an appreciation for the gift of discernment that God blessed us with. Keep voting liberal buddy. Keep patting yourself on the back for what you give back to the community. Stay a coward – because you never had the stones to be a cop, or join the military. Thats why you’ll never understand. What a chump.

  • Joe A

    I will frequent the restaurant more frequently so perhaps we cancel each other out Karen. And they won’t have to be subsidizing cops’ meals anymore so that will help their bottom line.

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