Target in Silverdale, Washington Disrespects Navy Widow

Dear fellow Texans and Patriots. I was made aware of an incident in Silverdale, Washington that I think you should know about. Below is a letter from a Navy widow to Target after the manager refused to allow people to park their cars and attend a public memorial for a soldier that gave his life for his country in Afghanistan. Please read the letter below and feel free to show your support on Target's Facebook page. They have since issued an apology but the damage is done. Target owes its very existence to the men and women who have given their lives for their country.

Target,

I am stationed in Washington State and shop often at the Target Store on Silverdale Way in Silverdale, WA as do most of my Brothers and sisters in arms. On May 30, 2012 my husband, MA2 (EXW) Sean E. Brazas was Killed in Action while serving in Afghanistan. Today, we hung a Gold Star Banner in his honor on the street light on the corner of your store. We called weeks ahead of time to let the store manager know that we would be having this ceremony. The street light is on city property so we were just doing it as a courtesy call to let the store know there would be a lot of traffic on the corner in front of the store. We also informed the manager that the parking lot may have additional cars parked in it due to the ceremony. The ceremony was from 10:30 am to 11:00 am. The manager told us we were absolutely NOT allowed to use their parking lot for any part of our ceremony, to include parking our vehicles. We politely reminded her he was KILLED IN ACTION protecting our freedoms. She once again denied the request and told us it was "Target Policy". We went ahead and used the parking lot to park our cars anyway. We had several mayors, county commissioners, and service members in attendance along with me, who is Sean's wife. We utilized the very, very BACK of the parking lot to park our cars and then gathered near the street corner. While people were pulling up and gathering, two target employees approached me and asked me what was going on. I explained to them that we were having a public ceremony on the street corner for my husband and we were simply parking our cars and gathering on city property. The gentleman told me this required written permission. I explained that I had asked for permission and was denied.. But this was city property where we were gathering, and as far as parking was concerned, I did not see any "No Trespassing" signs. I also explained it was 10:30 in the morning and there were tons of open parking spaces available for customers. They continued to give me a lecture about how we could not utilize the parking lot. By this time the sheriff had arrived to attend the ceremony and said he'd take care of it and said we were in no way violating any laws. Thankfully, the rest of the ceremony went flawlessly, no thanks to Target.

I was VERY disappointed in the way things were handled. It's unfortunate that your company is not more supportive of the military, especially of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice. I hope someone somewhere reads this and fixes this so called "policy" you guys have in place. It's truly unacceptable

Thank you for your time

Very Respectfully,
Allie Brazas