Rantz: Molly Moon’s ice cream goes to ‘war’ with SPD, bans police with weapons

Molly Moon’s ice cream shop in Seattle has joined the culture war against cops, sending a loud and clear message: Police aren’t welcome. Customers that support law enforcement should send a clear message back by going elsewhere for summer treats.

The retail chain posted a sign outside their Capitol Hill location, a two-minute walk from the East Precinct, specifically telling cops they’re not welcome with a firearm. Their shop is a gun-free zone.

“Police Officers: Molly Moon’s is a gun-free zone. Please do not come inside if you are wearing a firearm. No guns allowed inside.”

Molly Moon’s takes on police

Molly Moon Neitzel is the founder and owner of the chain of ice cream shops, with locations in Queen Anne, Redmond, and Bellevue. She defended her signage in a post online to her customers.

“Community, first and foremost we want to say again that we 100% support Black Lives and the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as divesting funding from the police department,” a note on their Instagram account reads.

The note explains the new signage as a way to protect her employees from confronting police over their firearms: “We do not ever want to put our employees in a confrontational situation of having to ask police officers to leave, especially our BIPoC [Black, Indigenous, People of Color] employees.”

Asking non-police officers to leave the shop? Not a problem, apparently. But if the customer is an officer, Neitzel implies something could go wrong.

She doesn’t hide her activism. In an interview with Q13 FOX, Neitzel said, “I am anti the current police system. Yeah, I think we need major reform.”

This is about being anti-cop, not anti-gun.

A free ice cream faux controversy

Online, anti-cop activists claimed Molly Moon’s offered free ice cream to officers at the East Precinct. But Neitzel wanted to make sure the community knows she’d never give free ice cream to cops. The rumor was addressed on the Instagram post:

We have seen some posts going around referencing free ice cream being given to police officers at our Capitol Hill shop. We did not, and have not given free ice cream to police officers. We looked into what happened – and found that a man visiting from California came to our shop and prepaid for a large amount of ice cream and then told police officers to come to our shop to get it.

Imagine thinking donated ice cream to police officers is controversial.

Remarkably, Q13 said Neitzel claimed “some of her employees felt intimidated by officers after they cleared out the nearby Capitol Hill Organized Protest or CHOP zone last week.” It’s unclear if the two homicides, attempted rape, arson, assaults, and fights at CHOP intimidated Molly Moon’s staff.

Police respond

Several officers sent me the image of the signage. They were, needless to say, disgusted with one explaining she’s going to “war” with them. The president of the Seattle Police Officer’s Guild (SPOG) expressed his disappointment.

“[It’s] more divisiveness at a time when we need unity,” Solan told the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH.

Solan maintains that Neitzel doesn’t speak for the greater Seattle community.

“It’s a one off, and it just tells us that, OK, we’ll stay away from your business,” Solan said. “Apparently, you don’t need our money. But the reasonable community will support their police and, you know, look strongly at Molly Moon’s ice cream.”

According to a comment Neitzel made to Q13, she probably shouldn’t turn away officers in uniform with their firearms. She said her business is down more than 50% compared to last year, which she blames on the coronavirus.

“If they want to come into my shop and buy ice cream without a gun, they are welcome,” she claimed.

But why would any police officer want to go to her shop after this?

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