The following is my account of discriminatory interactions with Starbucks employ

ees. While Starbucks corporate donated a total of forty dollars in an attempt to

salve the wound caused by their employees, I'm still prohibited from patronizin
g the locations indicated.
...
I got to the store at 2128 Oxford Street Berkeley, CA 94704 early on the sevent
h of February. Outside it's raining off and on. My face hurts because of an absc
essed tooth; my kidneys hurt my back because I didn't have enough water for the
antibiotic the night before.
When the rain picks up and seems
I'm familiar with come in.One of
se presence helps alleviate some
busker and has a guitar and amp

unwilling to let up again, a couple travellers

the travellers has a support cat, an animal who
psychological disorder or other. The other is a
in addition to a pack.

In the evening, the rain lets up. As the two travellers gather their gear to go,
the manager comes over and says, "You have to leave. You have too much stuff."
I sat dumbfounded. How can I have too much stuff? I've a backpack and a computer
satchel. That's it. I think the guitar player said something to the manager, bu
t I don't remember what. I'd intended to stay until the place closed so as to av
ail myself of clean water and a bathroom.
When the manager sees the support cat she tells us we have to leave NOW. Bear in
mind, we were already getting ready to go when she came over - it takes time to
get everything together. I'm not sure what she has against cats, but she then t
old us that cats were not eligible to be service animals. While she is technical
ly right, service animals, by law, can only be dogs or miniature horse, she fail
ed completely to understand that there are also support animals - animals for wh
ich a doctor writes a prescription, but are not horses or dogs. (http://www.paws
sf.org/page.aspx?pid=654)
Now they refuse to serve me.
I spent 15 Feb outside the 2224 Shattuck Avenue location with a sign reading, "S
tarbucks denies service to me for walking stick. O_O Not OK," after I was asked
to either leave the store or leave my walking stick outside. The staff is the c
entral stalk of a cannibus plant. It is approximately four feet long and weighs
just over an ounce; it is in no way, shape, or form a weapon any more than a cha
ir is a weapon. In the course of the twelve hours spent outside their store with
my sign, I discovered a few disturbing things.
The bathroom is closed every Sunday morning. An employee puts up an "Out of Orde
r" sign on the door; customers are forced to use scarce alternative bathroom fac
ilities. The nearest is the Public Library half a block away and closed until no
on. I felt bad for one poor guy struggling with his briefcase, dignity, and a cl
ear desire to run to the nearest bathroom before his bladder made a child of him
. I watch an employee remove the sign for the evening rush, then put it back fo
r the last three or so hours the store is open. The interesting thing is that, a
ccording to several locals, this has been going on the same amount of time the S
unday manager has worked that shift, yet a plumber has never visited.
The same manager likes to rather arbitrarily force patrons to leave on ridiculou
s pretexts - like refusing to serve me because of the walking stick. He seems to
pick people whose mental differences make them slightly more emotional than mos
t; such individuals then struggle with an anger that, while justifiable, inhibit
s their ability to meaningfully defend the expression of their social and indivi
dual rights. I watched someone who clearly lived with an Autism Spectrum Disorde
r make just that attempt; the constant malicious interruptions made by the Starb

ucks employee clearly had no purpose beyond causing the eruption of anger which
quickly followed.
Absolutely no one supports a corporate entity picking on homeless disabled veter
ans; it's fortunate that this is a case of a manager gone power-mad or dangerous
ly dissociative rather than a reflection of corporate policy; I've had too many
positive experiences at other locations to believe otherwise. The actions of the
employees at this location may also be because of a psychopath:
http://www.hrzone.com/feature/people/are-you-employing-corporate-psychopath/1411
11
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy_in_the_workplace
http://leb.fbi.gov/2012/july/psychopathy-an-important-forensic-concept-for-the-2
1st-century
From the first link, "... [psychopaths] can be identified by the toxic effect th
at they have on the culture and atmosphere in the workplace e.g. in developing a
climate of fear, increasing attrition and thirdly in how they respond to others
e.g. charming those above while simultaneously exploiting and abusing those bel
ow. "
The number of people told me I should, "fuck the dumb shit and sue," leads me to
believe that corporate abuse of individual rights is so widespread that even th
ose who've not been victimized perceive the problem and desire those individuals
responsible for discrimination be held accountable. I don't want to sue any cor
poration - the time and energy necessary to overcome a team of lawyers is not co
mmensurate with the reward. Instead, if every patron of corporations like Starbu
cks constantly demand corporate policy on guest behavior that reads something li
ke, "At no time will any individual patronizing our establishment be asked to le
ave, nor denied service, except when their behavior is demonstrative of incipien
t violence or is deliberately disruptive and/or abusive of fellow patrons. We as
k that individuals with documented social behavior disorders the symptoms of whi
ch include loud outbursts please make our staff aware of your unique circumstanc
es so our staff may reassure your fellow patrons of their safety and remind them
of your right to enjoy the services of our establishment without discrimination
based on their discomfort."