LOS ANGELES — The Starbucks employee who drew a pig on a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy’s coffee cup has been fired, the coffee chain confirmed — but the company claimed it was not meant to be offensive.
“This was unacceptable. We have reached out to the customer several times and to leaders in the Sheriff’s Department to apologize,” said Jaci Anderson, Starbucks’ director of global communications. “Every customer should always be made to feel welcome in our stores.”
The drawing — a meme commonly referred to as “John Pork” — was not intended for the deputy, Anderson said.
Anderson said the barista had been doodling on cups earlier in the day to cheer up coworkers, and that a “series of unfortunate events” led to the cup being handed to the deputy.
“John Pork” is an internet meme depicting a cartoon pig often used in joking or satirical posts online. Pigs have long been used as a derogatory slang term for police officers, particularly among anti-cop activists.
The incident occurred at the Starbucks located at Firestone Boulevard and Pioneer Boulevard in Norwalk. Starbucks said the store and its employees are not represented by a union.
The deputy involved, Brandon Longoria, was working a 16-hour shift when a routine coffee run turned into what he described as a derogatory name-calling incident. Longoria later posted about the encounter on his personal social media, calling it “discouraging and disrespectful.”
“All I wanted was caffeine, but instead I left feeling uneasy,” he wrote.
The sheriff’s department and the deputy union both slammed the incident as offensive. The Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, also put out a statement calling the incident disappointing.
“We hope this was an isolated incident and not reflective of the community values on which Starbucks was founded,” said Richard Pippin, president of the union.
LA County Sheriff Robert Luna contacted Starbucks’ corporate security team to raise concerns and seek accountability, the department said. He also spoke with the deputy involved, stressing that disrespect toward sheriff’s personnel would not be tolerated.
Starbucks operates roughly 17,000 stores nationwide, with about 550 locations unionized — roughly 4% of its US footprint.
This is not the first time Starbucks has faced controversy involving law enforcement.
In late 2019, a barista at a Starbucks in Oklahoma, wrote the word “PIG” on the coffee label of an on-duty police officer’s order on Thanksgiving, and the employee was fired after the incident drew national attention and an apology from the company.
Earlier that year, in Tempe, Ariz., Starbucks again apologized after an employee asked six uniformed police officers to move or leave a store because a customer said they felt unsafe, prompting backlash from law enforcement groups.
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