Social media lights up after sheriff’s Facebook post

SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. – A Facebook post Thursday afternoon by Skagit County Sheriff Will Reichardt led to a social media storm that continued into the night.

Reichardt reported on the official Sheriff’s Office page that several deputies were told by an employee at a Sedro-Woolley restaurant that law enforcement officers were no longer welcome.

“I am not often speechless but today I was advised of an incident at the Lucky Teriyaki restaurant in Sedro-Woolley that completely took me by surprise,” Reichardt wrote.

The reaction to the post was swift, with 17,000 shares and thousands of comments in several hours.

Most of the comments vilified the restaurant as discriminating against law enforcement and called for a boycott, though some called out Reichardt for using the Facebook page to air a grievance with a private business.

In his post, Reichardt said that when four deputies at the restaurant went to pay for their food, they were asked to spread the word to other law enforcement agencies that officers were not welcome.

Within hours of Reichardt’s post, a “Boycott Lucky Teriyaki” page was also created.

A couple of hours after the post was made, the father and son who run the business visited the Sedro-Woolley Police Department and spoke with Sedro-Woolley Police Chief Lin Tucker.

They had hoped to meet with Reichardt, as well, said Sedro-Woolley Mayor Keith Wagoner.

Wagoner said he believes the son at Lucky Teriyaki made the comments without the father’s consent.

“I don’t think we can unfire this bullet,” Wagoner said. “I don’t want to see damage done to (anybody’s business) but once you utter something like that, it’s hard to take back.”

As a frequent patron of Lucky Teriyaki, Tucker said he was disappointed. He said his department will protect the business, but he won’t go back there to eat.

“I’m not going to go anywhere where somebody doesn’t want us,” he said.

Wagoner said having the conflict shared on Facebook will likely be bad for the business.

“I’m sad because I want to see all my businesses succeed. And I want to see my police supported,” he said. “(The employee) couldn’t have picked a worse week to do this.”