12 hours ago
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An Arizona college bar took “never forget” to a new level.
The Tempe Tavern in Tempe, AZ, came under fire for comparing a recent, massive underage drinking bust to the September 11 terror attacks — and advertising tee shirts calling it “our 9/11.”
“They hit the second tower!!” the bar quipped in a now-deleted Facebook post after cops detained nearly 200 suspected underage drinkers, many from the nearby Arizona State University.
The joke came with an ad for tee shirts bearing “#TavernStrong” on one side and an American flag with “our 911” on the other, 12News reported.
Cops nabbed 173 people and issued 163 misdemeanor citations in the April 24 raid, the Tempe Police Department announced.
Officials confirmed to 12News that the raid was one of the biggest underage drinking busts the city had ever seen.
“This crackdown targeted underage drinking and sent a strong message: we’re watching!” the Tempe Police Department wrote on Instagram.
Arizona State University students took to social media to defend their local watering hole, but locals condemned the underage drinking — and said the shirt crossed the line.
“While I tend to believe that there’s a time and place for joking about anything, this certainly wasn’t it. I suppose it’s to be expected that students don’t really grasp the importance of 9/11, considering few of them were even born, let alone old enough to remember,” one commenter wrote on the ASU Reddit page.
“I like dark humor but this wasnt even a joke, it just said ‘this is our 9-11’ like, yeah you guys are f—-d,” wrote another.
“I just think it’s offensive, especially since I’m from the East coast, I’m from New Jersey, I know a lot of people who were in 9/11,” ASU senior Christopher Robinson told 12News.
The Tempe Tavern later blamed the Facebook post on a “younger staff member who did not appreciate the significance of that tragic day,” adding that it had been originally designed and shared by a student unaffiliated with the business.
“911 is nothing to joke about; the reference was reprehensible. The shirt is tasteless and disgusting,” the bar wrote on its Facebook page yesterday.
The Tempe Tavern received a citation for being over maximum capacity on the night of the raid, but it could face additional penalties from the Arizona Department of Liquor & License Control, police told The Post.
The bar declined The Post’s request for comment on the raid, but it confirmed that the 9/11 shirts are not for sale.
English (US)