Owners of Max’s Taphouse in Fells Point have apologized to patrons after an employee shared a post dismissing police brutality on Facebook.
The post, which the restaurant called “disturbing,” asserted “police will leave you alone if you don’t do illegal stuff.” It garnered criticism after another Facebook user posted it to various community groups, and commenters began to promise boycotts of the Fells Point bar. The post has since been deleted.
“I think at this point it’ll be easier to have a list of non-problematic people in the Baltimore bar and restaurant scene,” one wrote.
A spokesman for Max’s Taphouse said in a statement posted to Facebook that the employee, whom they did not name, claimed to have shared the post by mistake. The bar “firmly supports peaceful protests and the [Black Lives Matter] movement,” the statement said. Owners intend to contribute a portion of this week’s sales to “organizations fighting injustice," the statement said.
Screenshots of the Max’s employee’s post identify him as Jason Hard. Neither he nor the restaurant’s owners could immediately be reached for comment.
The controversy comes amid a national reckoning on race and policing following the killing of Minnesota man George Floyd. Floyd, a black man, died after former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly 9 minutes. Other black Americans who have recently been killed by police include 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, an emergency room technician who was shot in March after police officers executed a no-knock warrant to search her address in Louisville, Kentucky. In Fort Worth, Texas, a police officer was charged with murder after fatally shooting Atatiana Jefferson as she babysat her nephew
In recent weeks many businesses have made a point of asserting their commitment to racial justice on social media platforms. Still others have been taken to task for past or current racist behavior. Vince’s Crab House temporarily shut down its five locations over the weekend after protesters confronted operator Vince Meyer over racist social media posts. Customers demonstrated outside the crab house’s Middle River and Fallston location Saturday and have led a boycott of the business.
Last year, Ryleigh’s Oyster owner Brian McComas apologized following uproar over comments he made on Twitter that disparaged Baltimore’s Ceasefire movement. McComas permanently closed the restaurant’s Federal Hill location this year.