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Woman Disgusted By Bar's Domestic Violence Message

PLANO (KRLD) -- After walking into Scruffy Duffies bar at the Shops At Legacy in Plano on Saturday, Courtney Williams says she was stunned to see what was written on a chalk board sign greeting customers.

"I like my beer like I like my violence... domestic."

Williams says she felt like the bar was joking about a very serious issue: "That domestic violence victims were no more important than the type of beer someone was drinking," said Williams.

Williams, who is a survivor of abuse herself, thought the sign was in profoundly bad taste.

"I can relate; I can understand and unless you have been there, it feels very different."

Williams says she then asked the manager to take the sign down, calling the hand-written phrase "disgusting" and "not funny".

She says the bar removed the sign, but only after repeated requests by her and her friends. Before the bar removed it, Williams posted a picture of the sign on Facebook -- which went viral.

"I wrote this Facebook post as soon I got home and I made it public and I shared this photo with another domestic violence group," said Williams. "My friends and I think I just had the right group of people that felt so strongly about it that it got shared so many times."

A statement from the bar posted on Facebook says the message was jokingly written by a female employee without approval and was obviously in bad taste.

"It has come to our attention that one of our female employees wrote something offensive without owner's approval. Domestic violence is something our family unfortunately has overcome in the past, therefore this subject is one we don't take lightly. We are currently investigating the situation and proper actions will be taken immediately. We thank you for your patience and again want to ensure this is not our stance."

It's an apology that Williams says doesn't go far enough.

"It's like they're trying to say it's less bad because it was a woman or it's worse because it was a woman. For them, her gender shouldn't matter."

We've reached out to the owners of Scruffy Duffies for additional comment but have not heard back.

(©2014 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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