Starbucks Coffee shops in Seattle will now be offering more than just your daily dose of caffeine; the chain worked with city police to help establish "safe spaces" in all of its stores to help victims of homophobic-based hate crimes.

 

All 2,000 Starbucks employees in Seattle have received special training. Victims of a hate crime can seek help in any of the city's 97 shops where they will be kept warm and safe, while staff contact the authorities.

 

Starbucks hopes to eventually create similar spaces in other cities across the US.

 

“We don’t have roving bands of people assaulting LBGTQ people as we did in the ’80s," explained openly gay constable Jim Ritter, who heads the city’s Safe Space push: “[But] the crimes are predatory, they’re picking somebody out of the herd. They’re cowards for the most part… They’re opportunistic, they do their damage and leave. They like operating in the shadows and Safe Place eliminates a lot of those shadows.”

 

“We’re already a part of our customers’ lives and this is another way to be part of the community," added Starbucks spokesperson Heather Jennings. “Anyone who needs a place to go to feel safe, to call the police, we want to be there for them.”

 

See, even major corporations can sometimes do the right thing.