Protests planned outside Philly Starbucks where black men were arrested
- by Emilio Sims
- in Money
- — Apr 16, 2018
On Thursday, police were called to a Starbucks located on 18th and Spruce. She suggested an experiment: Go to a Starbucks and assess the demographics of people sitting there.
Police are conducting an internal investigation into the incident. The department did not return comment Saturday asking what laws they suspected were being violated and if any administrative actions have been taken during the investigation. A witness who reportedly saw the entire incident unfold chimed in saying, "they didn't do anything".
Video of Thursday's incident showed other patrons telling officers the pair were doing nothing wrong and appeared to have been targeted merely due to their race.
In a statement, Kevin Johnson said the company would do "whatever we can to make things right" following a "disheartening situation that led to a reprehensible outcome".
"They did a service that they were called to do", Ross says of the officers. Ross said one of the men was denied access to the bathroom because he wasn't a paying customer, which is the store's policy.
Kenney said he's "heartbroken to see Philadelphia in the headlines for an incident like that", which he says "appears to exemplify what racial discrimination looks like in 2018".
A video has gone viral with over four million views showing two Black men being arrested at the Starbucks.
"We are reviewing out policies and will continue to engage with the community and the police department to try to ensure these types of situations never happen in any of our stores".
Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson on Saturday expressed his "deepest apologies" to the men, who were arrested Thursday after refusing to leave the coffee shop because they did not make a purchase.
"Most importantly, I hope to meet personally with the two men who were arrested to offer a face-to-face apology", Johnson said.
Johnson added his apology, saying the company would review its policies and "further train our partners to better know when police assistance is warranted". Officials said they had asked to use the restroom but because they had not bought anything, an employee refused the request. He said the incident underscores the need for more body-worn cameras to present different perspectives of police responses.
With these issues in mind, a black Philadelphia police commissioner defended the department's decision to arrest the two men in a Facebook Live video on Saturday, citing the 911 call about a "disturbance and trespassing".
"They were professional in all their dealings with these gentlemen, and instead they got the opposite back".
Wimmer said Yaffe, who runs a real estate development firm, said that he was there to meet the men to discuss business investment opportunities.
He also noted that it was only while the men were being processed that they were alerted that Starbucks "no longer wanted to prosecute". Though the company has often taken very public progressive stances on social issues, then-CEO Howard Schultz triggered a backlash with a 2015 campaign dubbed "Race Together", which aimed to foster conversations about race as national outrage over police shootings of unarmed African-Americans reached a fever pitch.
"We do this because we want people, our officers, our recruits to understand the minute they come on board to know about the atrocities that were committed by policing around the world", Ross said.