Boise State coffee-shop owner backs ‘thin blue line,’ sparks campus uproar. Then this happened
The closing of a coffee shop at Boise State University has caused an uproar on campus.
Since it arrived at the beginning of the fall semester, Big City Coffee and Cafe has faced scrutiny from students for displaying Thin Blue Line flags at the store’s main location in downtown Boise and voicing support for law enforcement. Such flags are often used to counterprotest the Black Lives Matter movement.
Students also raised concerns after the coffee shop posted a screenshot on Facebook and Instagram of a student’s Snapchat post that decried the shop’s support of the “thin blue line.”
Now, Big City Coffee and Cafe, a locally owned business that has operated in downtown Boise since 2006, has closed the campus shop. It was located in the university’s Albertsons Library, where it had replaced a Starbucks there.
According to The Arbiter, Boise State’s student newspaper, the university announced the shop’s closure during a meeting Tuesday for the Inclusive Excellence Student Council meeting, a committee that’s a part of Boise State student government.
In the Facebook post, the coffee shop’s owner, Sarah Fendley, explained that her fiancé, Kevin Holtry, was shot five times by a fugitive while working as an officer with the Boise Police Department in 2016 and was paralyzed. The shooting also killed a Boise K-9 dog named Jardo.
“We are lucky to have such great police, fire and EMS in our community,” Fendley wrote. “I support them because they support us.”
In a statement released Wednesday evening, Boise State officials said that Big City Coffee was invited to the campus and opened for the fall semester. The university said students spoke out against the coffee shop’s messaging, and campus officials explained they could not violate the shop’s First Amendment rights.
According to the university, Big City Coffee asked to be let out of its contract with the university, and the university agreed.
“At no time did the administration at Boise State ask Big City Coffee to leave campus,” the statement said. “At no time did the administration ask Big City Coffee to compromise the owner’s First Amendment rights.
“Boise State was working with the owner to help find a successful resolution to the concerns regarding free speech on campus. Big City Coffee’s recent actions signal that the business has chosen to leave.”
Fendley gave the Statesman a brief statement regarding the ordeal. She said she wasn’t fully at liberty to discuss the whole matter, because of an ongoing records request with the university.
“It is sad that Boise State administrators have worked behind the scenes with student groups to translate my love of Kevin as hate,” Fendley said.
In its most recent Facebook post, Big City Coffee shared a YouTube clip of Holtry talking on 670 KBOI, a Boise talk radio station, where he shared his discontent over the matter with host Nate Shelman. Numerous comments on the Facebook post voice support for the business, while also condemning the “cancel culture” reportedly on display.
The post, apparently written by Fendley, thanks Holtry for speaking up and sharing his feelings.
“I love you and that doesn’t make me racist it makes me lucky,” the post says.
This story was originally published October 29, 2020 at 11:24 AM.
CORRECTION: Big City Coffee has displayed Thin Blue Line flags at its downtown Boise shop, not at its Boise State University shop. A headline on an earlier version of this story misstated the location.
