There was a strange and terrible moment last Saturday night at a Dave & Buster’s Money Pit in Kentwood, Michigan.

Kentwood is adjacent to the Grand Rapids airport. Dave & Buster’s is a chain of 83 restaurants that include adult game arcades. The chain’s marketing tag line is “Eat, Drink, Play, Watch.”

Two married couples who are all members of the American Legion Riders made a date to drink and play at the Money Pit. The first couple to arrive was Victor Murdock and his fiancé Adrienne Brown. “Me, my fiancé and my road captain and his wife, we had planned to meet up there,” Murdock told at least three Grand Rapids news outlets. “Just drink a couple beers and play some video games, you know?” Murdock and Brown didn’t get much farther than the front door.

First Murdock was told to remove his beanie by manager Josh Leibowitz and another Dave & Buster’s employee. “So I agreed to take it off, but that wasn’t good enough for the manager,” Murdock told Grand Rapids television station WXMI.

No Colors Policy

“As I turned to go to the bathroom to take off my beanie, the manager was standing there and placed his hand on my chest and told me I wasn’t allowed in there,” Murdock said. “We all asked why and he said it was because the jackets were gang related.” The gang being the American Legion Riders.

Members of the quasi-motorcycle club wear vests with a patch on the back. “Our vests have the American flag. The prisoner of war flag. They have our patch that has a big bald eagle on the back of it and it says our post,” Brown said.

According to Murdock, “Basically if we didn’t either turn them inside out or remove them that we would have to leave.” The couple refused and so they were kicked out.

Marketing VP

The American Legion Riders was started by two members of Legion Post 396 named Chuck “Tramp” Dare and Bill “Polka” Kaledas in Garden City, Michigan in 1993. According to the VFW website, “The two longtime riders wanted an environment where Legion family members could come together to share a common love for motorcycles.” The club now has 106,000 members and over a thousand chapters.

The Legion Riders are a charitable organization that also participates in events to honor and raise awareness of veterans issues including Rolling Thunder and Operation Wounded Warrior. You do not need to be a veteran to ride with the Legion Riders. In fact, Murdock is not a veteran. But his father was in the Navy and he told Hugh Carey of the digital marketing site MLive that he joined Friends of the American Legion and the Legion Riders “to honor his father and help other veterans.”

After reporters started calling Dave & Buster’s corporate headquarters in Dallas, April Spearman who is Vice President for Marketing for the corporation issued a press release that read:

“We are extremely grateful to all of our active military members and veterans and are honored to have them as valued guests in any of our locations. Our dress code, which prohibits evidence of gang affiliation, is in place to ensure that everyone is able to enjoy themselves in a fun and safe environment. Though we understand that the American Legion promotes a positive mission, for consistency reasons we cannot allow motorcycle jackets displaying patches or rockers. Our policies are in no way meant to be disrespectful and we apologize for any frustration this may have caused. In addition, please know that this group was not asked to leave, but to simply turn their jackets inside out. Again, we apologize for any misunderstanding.