The Free to Camp Coalition protested near Coffee Plantation on Mill Avenue to criticize the store for an alleged mistreatment of homeless people and others.
For about an hour Saturday evening, more than 30 ASU students, activists and local residents marched up and down both sides of the downtown street.
They handed out fliers and fake Coffee Plantation coupons for a free discrimination, waved hand-painted, fabric banners that read "Coffee Plant. Won't Serve Homeless & Veterans."
The group also chanted rhymes like "Don't harass us, don't trespass us" and "Stop the war on the poor."
Free to Camp's main complaint: Since Coffee Plantation came under new management in January, frequently it has refused service to homeless people and others based on physical attributes like appearance and hygiene.
Eric Spruce, the store's new owner, said the charges are false.
A statement posted on the store's windows in response to Free to Camp's allegations affirms the store's right to refuse business to those who are "offensive in hygiene, language or behavior."
"It has nothing to do with [discrimination]," Spruce said. "It's just a few people who we wouldn't allow to use our bathrooms [to bathe] and panhandle our customers. It's just overreacting."
Jesse MacBeth told another story.
MacBeth, a 20-year-old U.S. soldier who recently returned from Iraq after sustaining a back injury, said Coffee Plantation banned him from the store in March for the way he was dressed -- in his training uniform.
He had been sipping coffee calmly when a store employee asked him to leave. He refused.
Management insisted that he leave even after he took out his military ID card. Security guards escorted him off the premises under threat of arrest if he returned.
He said he hoped the protest would disrupt the flow of customers into the store.
"If you cut down the customers a lot, then they won't keep their business going," MacBeth said. "That's the whole point, to let society know what's going on."
Another protester, journalism freshman Andrew Socha, wasn't so sure the demonstration would be successful.
"If anything is going to be effective, then people standing outside your store and yelling will hopefully get the message across," Socha said.
Socha paused and looked inside the store, which was far from empty.
"But a lot of times, people don't get the message no matter what you say," he said.
As if to accentuate the point, fliers and coupons that had been distributed by the protesters and dropped by passersby skittered along the sidewalk in the cool breeze.
One man quickly walked past the group and repeated, "Get a job. Get a job," while talking on his cell phone.
Reach the reporter at ilan.brat@asu.edu.
