Chick-Fil-A In Georgia Gave White Officers A Free Meal But Told Their Black Co-Worker He Had To Pay

A Black police officer in Georgia opened up about his experience at a local Chick-fil-A location and said that he was racially discriminated against by the restaurant’s workers during a work trip with other officers.

“I was kind of humiliated and embarrassed, you know, at the whole situation. It seemed like it was a racial issue to me,” Clover Police Sgt. Tracey Reid told WSOC-TV 9.

Reid said the incident happened when he visited a Chick-fil-A location in Augusta a few weeks ago. He and three other CPD officers, who are white, had gone to the popular fast-food chain for breakfast.

“We came in together, same uniform, stood in line, there was never a time we were not together while standing in line,” Reid said.

‘He looked sad and humiliated’

All three of the white officers got a complimentary meal, which is something Chick-fil-A does often with law enforcement. However, when Reid got to the register, he was told that he had to pay.

“He said he had to pay for his meal and it infuriated me,“ Detective Thomas Barnette said, according to WSOC-TV 9. ”And I said, ‘You want me to go say something?’ He was like no I don’t want you to cause a scene, but I could tell the way he looked; he just looked at his plate, he looked sad and humiliated and that made me really mad.”

After some time, Reid wrote a letter to Chick-fil-A corporate about the situation, demanding that the chain retain its employees at the Augusta location and strengthen corporate-wide policies in compliance with civil rights laws, per WSOC-TV 9.

The store manager responded to the incident in a letter

Reid and the other officers weren’t pleased with the response from the Augusta location’s store manager, which included two cards for free meals.

“It said it was perceived that it was a racial incident, which I didn’t like, because it wasn’t perceived, it actually happened,” Reid said.

Barnette also pushed back on those claims, stating that he and the other officers witnessed the unfair treatment of Reid.

“He’s not the only one that perceived it. We all did, and it’s not perception, it’s what happened. It was a racial issue,” Barnette said.

The owners of the Augusta chain issued an apology to the Clover Police Department, which was echoed in a letter from the store manager.

The letter stated that the employee who took the order was a team leader who was unaccustomed to working the register and that the incident was a mistake.