Originally Posted by
Claybird
If a guy goes in a coffee-shop and disturbs the place and the police show up and they beat him and they deny him basic rights, would that person sue the coffee shop or the police? The police, of course.
I think you're missing a key element here. If a guy goes into a coffee-shop (which is a place of public accommodation), and the owner says, "We don't serve <insert ethnic group or other protected class> here," and the guy insists on his legal right to be served, and the situation escalates, and the owner calls the police, and the police break the guy's face, then he's absolutely going to sue the coffee shop. As he should. And he will win. It is the coffee shop that initiated, provoked, and escalated the situation.