Looks like they arrested the wrong two men.
But the right two men for the people.
It’s unfortunate that this happened, and it definitely sounds like a case of racial profiling. But it seems like it was racial profiling by by the individual Starbucks manager, rather than as some kind of over-arching Starbucks corporate policy.
Hope their subsequent efforts weed out any other bad apples.
These 2 guys were definitely profiled for waiting while black. They also seem to be stand-up guys, maybe Starbucks should hire them.
BTW - I hate walking into my local Starbucks. It is large but almost all of the tables are permanently occupied by white millennials who sit there for hours nursing a $1.85 cup of coffee for 6 or 7 hours a day. Those are the people the cops need to roust.
I’m sure many (most?) children grasp the difference between obedience and respect. It’s shameful the police commissioner doesn’t.
They did something wrong right out of the gate. They forgot what color they are.
I invariably quit walking into places that I find myself hating to walk into.
This isn’t modern racism.
This is 1960’s racism, only at a Starbucks and not a Woolworths.
Ah, the good old days.*
*This message brought to you by the Republican Party.
“Starbucks in Philadelphia’s tony Rittenhouse Square neighborhood,”
Now it all make sense.
Maybe you didn’t look trendy enough.
I always default to patronizing establishments that charge roughly 20% more than the rest of the city for the same goods and services. It’s almost always worth the enhanced experience of dealing with both them and their clientele. Give me “tony” any day.
Looking at the comments on WaPo there are hundreds of people making the same fundamental error - arguing that “there is nothing wrong with telling people who don’t order something to leave, and calling the cops if they don’t”.
I posted an explanation (not that it will do much good) that it does not matter if you could run a diner and have that as your standard policy. The issue is that policy only exists for blacks.
Rejoinders were along the lines that - “but its rude not to order something” and “it wouldn’t have happened if they wore suits” – in other words (as I explained) blacks must hit a higher level of behavior than whites to not have the cops called on them.
Back in the day they called blacks who did not show this deference “uppity”.
Her ein 2018 there a large block of white Americans who deep in their hearts still expect blacks to “know their place”.
“I feel like I fell short,” he explained. “I’m trying to think of something I did wrong, to put not just me but my brother, my lifelong friend … in this situation.”
And there you have it: the insidious lifelong psychological damage and struggle it creates for people that both plays into and signifies learned helplessness.
They did nothing wrong and yet here he is searching for a way to blame himself. It’s a sign that our society and culture is putrid.
If you’re meeting someone, and want to enjoy whatever food and drink is being consumed TOGETHER, and that person is running late, why the hell should you be forced to order (under penalty of ejection if you don’t) before the final table guest is seated?
The chai latte is worth the pain, no one else does it as well.
I say the same thing about Miss Kitty.
Some of those comments may come from the initial reporting on the incident. Although the bit above suggests the two guys told the server they were waiting for a biz partner none of the first stuff did. It left folks with the impression the guys sat down to wait for their partner, one attempted to use the bathroom and was told he could not but said nothing and refused to leave. The police were called to deal with “defiant trespassers” as a result. It’s seems unlikely race didn’t play a role in this but it seems more a conflict of attitudes. The guys knew they were up to no wrong and probably felt they did not have to explain themselves. The manager is a bit too much a company guy and the police don’t seem to know that being rude to them is not against the law. I’d bet big bucks that the personalities of the officers played the biggest part in this. They were in a position to defuse the mess but got upset and that governed their actions.
The folks trying to make this into institutional racism by Starbucks are fill of shit. they don’t do that. They make crappy coffee and are way too full of puke yuppies for my taste but they are not a racist haven.
This is so racist and stupid. You can’t tell me that if I went into a Starbucks with another friend and we sat down and waited for a 3d and one of us used the facilities that anyone working there would so much as turn a hair. They wouldn’t.
So don’t give me the old: you have to buy to pee excuse.
Tena…don’t do that. You are making us a scenario to debate a real one. That’s a way too common thing these days. No one knows what would happen if you did what you say and won’t until you try. And no one knows what would happen to these same two guys if they did this again in another Starbucks. I’m sure the initial factor in this incident was the race of the two guys. No one doubts that including the Starbucks CEO. But there was after that poor judgment and rashness demonstrated by all the players. I’ve not yet read an article about this that say the guys tried to explain their situation ( this one hints at it ) but I’ve read a few local reports that they did not and just refused to talk to the server. If they did not that’s a contributing factor. So far they’ve not been quoted as saying they did. calling the Cops was the unforgivable act in this. You should never expect modern law enforcement officers to handle a situation with empathy and finesse. They only know bulldog authority and I’ve met very few that understand their role in society. You call the Cops because you want trouble. That manager wanted trouble. And two men spent, because of that, near 12 hours in a jail cell over a fucking cup of coffee. Shitty coffee at that.