Starbuck’s, the world’s premiere high-end Coffee purveyor, has come under heavy criticism after a manager of one of their stores called police and asked them to arrest two black men who were sitting in the Coffee shop. Sitting in the shop waiting for a friend, and doing nothing illegal or even contentious…
Fellow Coffee shop patron Missy Depino caught the incident on video. Here, a bicycle
patrolman who responded as back-up to the squad car cuffs an innocent
Black man waiting peacefully to meet with a business associate.
The men were actually waiting tor a white business associate with whom they were going to discuss business opportunities. The associate arrived in the middle of the arrest and told the cops the men were legit. The cops cuffed and ‘transported’ the men just the same.
The President of Starbucks has since condemned the manager’s action and is going to Philadelphia, where it happened, to meet with and apologize face-to-face to the customers, who were handcuffed, humiliated and booked under false pretenses.
The location had to be closed later in the day, after the story got out on social media and hordes of protesters descended upon it, chanting and waving signs with slogans like, “Coffee is Black!” And, in reference to the subsequent dropping of the charges, “Too Little, Too Latté!”
It’s not the first time a business manager has been accused of racial profiling for asking non-white customers to leave, or having them removed by force.
What they’re doing about it…
Now, the chain has announced it will close all 8,000 or so of its stores for one day in May so employees can receive diversity training. That looks like a serious attempt to address an apparent serious problem. Certainly, Starbucks caught a serious black eye on social media and in the mainstream news over the incident.
One guy who won’t be getting the training is the manager who called 911 about the two black men at the Phillie Starbucks. He’s been fired.
My take…
Starbucks has worked hard to build its brand image and it’s clear the company is prepared to work at least as hard to heal the black eye. Good on corporate for coming out early after the event and announcing a firm plan for rehabilitating its system.
But I want to know why the cops arrested them in the first place, since they weren’t doing anything wrong or causing a disturbance. Store owners commonly invoke ‘trespassing’ as a reason to have people they don’t like removed, and I’ll bet that was the reason the Starbucks Manager gave. No official statement on that has been given. But the recording of the 911 call the manager made to summon the cops has been released:
“I have two gentlemen in my café that are refusing to make a purchase or leave. I am at the Starbucks at 18th and Spruce,” the employee said.
No indication that there was any kind of disturbance. But the cops in the squad car who responded to the call were told by their dispatcher that there was ‘a disturbance’ involving ‘two males’. I suggest that the dispatcher caused the escalation of the incident by getting the officers involved all worked up about a non-existent disturbance. Perhaps the dispatcher needs some additional training, too. Not to mention the cops, who cuffed and transported the men, even after their white associate vouched for them. But the associate was Jewish, and, maybe, the cops held him in the same low regard as the two innocent Black men.
~ Maggie J.