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Officers with the Department of Corrections were recently ousted from the Cheesecake Factory restaurant at the Tacoma Mall. Why? Because they were carrying their sidearms.
“They had seated us in the back area,” Miriam Nichols told KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz. “Shortly after the rest of our party arrived, we were asked to leave because we were carrying our firearms with us. They said they did not allow firearms in their establishment.”
The group was seated in the back of the restaurant, Nichols noted. They avoided making too large of a scene as the officers showed their badges and law enforcement identification to the Cheesecake Factory managers, explaining why they — as officers — had guns on them.
“They said it didn’t matter and they asked us to leave,” Nichols said. “We left quietly and tried not to make more of a scene than it already was.”
Cheesecake Factory management was polite, she said, and weren’t trying to be rude over the situation.
“There are only so many ways to politely kick someone out of an establishment, though,” Nichols said.
“I was a little floored that it was even happening,” she said. “This wasn’t the first place that my colleagues and I have gone to lunch … having contact with clients, offenders, the general public, while on duty. This is the first time we had this reaction.”