By Suzie Ziegler
DETROIT — A Detroit ice cream shop is giving cops the cold shoulder.
On its Instagram story, Cold Truth Soft Serve said it will not serve officers wearing body armor. Instagram stories disappear after 24 hours, but the post was saved with a screenshot obtained by FOX 2. The photo showed a Detroit cruiser parked outside the shop with the caption, “We can tolerate the parking however you please, but we will not serve anyone wearing body armor.”
The shop’s owner, Tim Mahoney, defended the picture in a follow-up post.
“There are times when police units come through and are outfitted in heavy-duty tactical gear, it is disturbing and unsettling for some of the families in our space,” Mahoney wrote in an Instagram post. “In the last 24 hours, it has come to my attention that the City of Detroit outfits EMS and Fire with armor, and this is not my concern. It’s the heavy-duty military dress that I’m hoping the city can find a way to minimize in our public spaces.”
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Detroit Police Chief James White condemned the shop’s words, calling them “shameful and apparently unprovoked.”
“Law enforcement is a dangerous profession. Body armor provides our officers protection and is an essential part of the police uniform,” he said in a statement. “It is the desire of each and every member of the Detroit Police Department to fulfill their duties as a law enforcement officer and at the end of their shift return home to their loved ones.”
A Detroit PD spokesperson said he is not aware of any instances in which officers were denied ice cream for wearing body armor, according to FOX 2.