Local business revokes military discount, veterans rally to protest

Military members and veterans protested outside of a small business in North Kingstown, Rhode Island following the removal of their military and police discount. 

The protest was organized by “Never Forget,” an organization created specifically for this event “to ensure the legacy of Allie’s Donuts is never forgotten under the current ownership,” reported WPRI News.

“Allie’s Donuts can keep their DISCOUNT. Thousands of Veterans, families, supporters, will “NEVER FORGET” the actions of Allies Donuts. Simply put, we will BOYCOTT this business establishment under the current ownership,” U.S. Army veteran John Cianci wrote.

“It’s not about the discount, it’s about the content of Allie’s Donuts message and the singling out of local police and military,” he continued.

The decision to drop the discount was announced June 6th by Allie’s Donuts owner Matt Drescher following the rising popularity of the Black Lives Matter movement. 

“We’re fed up. Until local police take action to solve problems with racism and injustice, Allie’s Donuts will choose to stand with the people of our great state,” wrote the shop on their Instagram page. 

Allie's Donuts announcing on their Instagram page that they will no longer offer police or military discounts to their customers with this message: pic.twitter.com/HFeTMGpZzS

— Corey Welch (@CoreyWelch) June 6, 2020

Just two days later, Drescher took to Instagram once again to apologize for the elimination of the discount, saying he was not expecting such an uproar and was just trying to support the Black Lives Matter movement. 

“One of the mistakes that I have made in the past 24 hours, because I am as human, as human can be, and we all make mistakes, that message didn’t really convey my intention,” Drescher said in a video posted to Instagram. “I just wanted to take away a privilege from people so that we could all be equal and make a donut worth the same amount to every single person that wanted one.”

You can check out a video of his apology, below.