Wild hawthorn have thorns but many of the cultivated varieties are thornless. I believe Winter King (Crataegus viridis) usually have no thorns. The one at the Dunkin' Donuts near me has no thorns I've noticed, but online reviews say that they do occasionally produce a thorn here and there. (The berries on that tree are quite pretty in the winter...flowers aren't super noticeable...)

My experience of hawthorn thorns is they are huge, vicious, but usually very firmly attached...they don't usually fall off. More a threat to kids that try to climb in the tree or hide in it if it grows as a shrub then to kids walking under it.

Just checked the local Winter King. No thorns on the branches, but there are lots of...water sprouts? With lots of thorns. I'm guessing a thornless variety was grafted onto thorny rootstock, and it is sending up some sprouts below the graft?

Probably grafted onto Washington hawthorn.