Coventry bar turns away funeral soldiers

Soldiers who were pallbearers at a corporal's funeral say they were "absolutely disgusted" at being turned away from a Coventry pub on Monday.

Cpl David Allison, of The Royal Welsh, said the men had wanted tea or coffee to "calm our nerves" during rehearsals for Cpl Michael Thacker's funeral.

More than 50,000 people have backed a Facebook campaign calling for Browns Independent Bar to be boycotted.

This has absolutely disgusted me and everyone in our home town of Coventry, soliders trying to mourn the loss of thier brother killed while serving thier country were refused from the bar just to get a cup of tea and coffee to calm the nervers. One of the people refused was the brother of the solider killed, god knows how he felt when he couldn't get a simple drink in his home town, which he put his life on the line everyday to protect.

There has been a huge support from all around the country and even international support, over 50,000 people joined a peaceful group in 2 days on Facebook to boycott the bar in question, with people from Canada, Australia and Thailand sending thier support which is amazing.

The owner of the bar, Ken Brown, came out with a apology and said if they knew the funeral was taking place they would of let them in, which is rubbish as its just across the road and has been in the papers for weeks. I hope his business suffers for the disrespect he has shown our armed forces.

Cpl Thacker, 27, of 1st Battalion The Royal Welsh, died on 1 June after being shot while manning an observation post in Helmand, Afghanistan. RIP, you will never be forgotten. Time to bring our troops home.


Link

reply to post by DeyTookErJeobs


That is the policy of the bar, its their private premises and they can decide who is allowed in and the dress code. The owner has apoligised since, claiming he was unaware of the funeral, what else do you want?

He apologizes for not knowing there was a funeral taking place, but how could he have known?
It's his bar, He can serve who he wants...right? Right.
However, I don't agree with what he did.

Yes there are policies in place where people in uniform are sometimes not served, but it doesn't change the fact that tens of thousands of people are very upset about it, these men risk their lives everyday and should be treated with more respect, which is why people are quite angry about it.

Originally posted by Peruvianmonk
reply to post by DeyTookErJeobs

 

That is the policy of the bar, its their private premises and they can decide who is allowed in and the dress code. The owner has apoligised since, claiming he was unaware of the funeral, what else do you want?

It's the policy of the bar, but also the will of the people. C'est la vie, the business is going down.

Im appaled that anyone on ats is defending the bars action. Yes, its also their right to not serve black people. What the hell is wrong with serving a soldier a coffee? Its also our right to make a stand that we arent gonna accept people treating our vets badly.

reply to post by DeyTookErJeobs

Yes there are policies in place where people in uniform are sometimes not served, but it doesn't change the fact that tens of thousands of people are very upset about it, these men risk their lives everyday and should be treated with more respect, which is why people are quite angry about it.

They are treated with a great deal of reverence by the majority of people in the UK. I don't really understand why.

Risking their lives? Well they are getting paid for it as are firepeople/oil-rig workers/police and a multitude of others, why should soldiers receive any more respect than anyone else? Quite apart from the fact that the main part of their job that they are trained for is to kill other human beings.

Originally posted by phroziac
Im appaled that anyone on ats is defending the bars action.

I think people are just saying that as a business, they can serve whoever they like, provided it's legal to do so

(onto your next point)

Yes, its also their right to not serve black people.

No it isn't, that would be illegal.

If the bar person just asked them to leave on grounds of dress or whatever and didn't let on it was about race, then nothing could be done.... if they asked them to leave and refused to serve them because they were black, and made it clear that was the reason.... then that bar would be screwed as that is entirely against the law.


Much like the Christian B&B owners who turned away a gay couple....

They would get sued and they would lose (the bar I mean)

reply to post by DeyTookErJeobs


I see the problem and I agree.
Most bars will not allow gangs to "fly" their colors in bars, kind of like a keep this place free of BRRRAVADO type thing.
So, crips, bloods, hells angels, ira, military alike should leave their political ideas and clothing outside.
Plus, they just may not care to support the war or those who support it.

I think the situation hasent helped at all, the fact they was burying their friend and wanted a drink and was refused, has angered many people and not a small amount of people either.

People just seem to have more respect for the armed services, I don't know many people who like the police.

reply to post by DeyTookErJeobs


Well from your ridiculous tagline "If youre not willing to stand behind our troops stand in front of them", I can conclude you have a lot of misguided respect for the armed forces.

They deserve your respect no more than anyone else. They choose to join the army etc and are paid for it, its sad for the families etc if they are injured or killed but it is hardly unexpected given the UK's history of involvement in armed conflict.

reply to post by Peruvianmonk


Not mis-guided at all. Having family in the armed forces I have huge respect for them and they are my role models, I have learnt so much from them and will try to follow in their footsteps, sorry if you can't understand that I grew up with it.

reply to post by DeyTookErJeobs


Yes I thought you must have family in the forces, and fair enough you are going to support them.

However I don't (have family in forces), and don't really understand why people would join a force whose predominant part is to kill other people. Bringing up this one case does not take away from the fact, that many support the forces above and beyond any other profession and those who don't are too afraid to speak their views otherwise.

Let's get all up in arms cause it's the troops eh?

Patriotism is an evil thing.

The bar has a policy of not serving people in uniform. Would you all be so upset if they'd turned away Boy Scouts?

Or some other uniform wearing group? Probably not. This outrage is only emotional in nature. The owner apologized, stated he had no idea that the funeral was going on.

Move on. Boycott the place? Cause of a long standing policy that NOBODY cared about prior to this?

Ridiculous.

~Tenth

This is the Facebook link if I did it right for the Boycott page

Facebook link

reply to post by Peruvianmonk


I understand some people may not like the armed forces because apart of the job involves returning fire and potentially takeing a life. But people don't join up because they get to shoot a gun, I'm joining up because I would get to travel the world, see places I've never seen before, learn how to live on my own and part of a group, meet friends that you couldn't find on civvy street, do a job not many people do. Just some of my reasons.

reply to post by fixer1967


Cheers, I didn't know if we could post facebook links on ATS so I left it out.

Erm soz posted in wrong thread !

But while I'm editing - hows this owner feel about postmen ?, ambulance drivers and med staff ?, firemen ?, quickymart staff ? I mean they all wear uniforms ??

No it couldn't possibly be his targeting of sevice persons
Discrimination by employment ?

Next time I see someone in distress I'll check what they do before I help
Especialy if they sit behind a bloody computer all day

And I don't believe this owner could be unaware, if indeed his pub is across the road
Firstly the members of the forces would have been in full No.1's ( is that what you guys call ceremonial dress? )
And secondly a military funeral is a fair bit different to a civvy one ( playing of last stand, 100's in attendance IN NO1 DRESS, gaurd of honour ect )

Coventry making the news for the wrong reasons again.

I personally stopped trying to get in there years ago after being turned away for no reason on so many occasions. I actually don't know anybody who has been granted access to the place. The manager there is a horrible person and was disliked throughout the city way before this happened. This was the final straw for a lot of people... and quite a big straw.

Originally posted by DeyTookErJeobs
reply to post by Peruvianmonk

 

Not mis-guided at all. Having family in the armed forces I have huge respect for them and they are my role models, I have learnt so much from them and will try to follow in their footsteps, sorry if you can't understand that I grew up with it.

When you volunteer to do military service it is commendable and honorable. However, when people demand that a private business give up the rights for which these soldiers fought (freedom) it make you wonder if the people really understand freedom?