Monday, April 16, 2018
Starbucks Employee called 911 because 2 men were waiting for a friend
Link to article
Protests took place in a Philadelphia Starbucks after the arrest of two black men for "loitering" in its establishment. An employee called the police, telling them the two men sat inside the cafe and allegedly refused to leave. The official police statement reiterated this, saying the two men did not purchase anything and refused to leave. The police arrested them, only to release them hours later with a simple "my bad".
The two men, whose identities have not been released, stated that they were waiting for a friend and were only accused of loitering because they are black. The CEO starting agreed to meet with these men and to start "unconscious bias" training for its employees.
Do you think the arrest was justified? Or was did the employee really called because they acted on subconscious biases?
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I first read about this through Twitter! I think it was so unfair that this happened. Poor men were wrongfully accused and all the police said was "my bad". What the Starbucks employee did was wrong. The men were doing nothing wrong and just assumed that they were up to something just because they did not purchase anything.
ReplyDeleteI do think that the Starbucks employee did wrong. There are many times people go into Starbucks and sit and wait for people. Especially the fact that it was simply a "my bad" scenario is a disgrace. So no it was not justified.
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ReplyDeleteThe men were not charged for anything. The police just made a fool of themselves. think its crazy how it takes 6 or more police officers for this scene. The Starbucks employee had no reason to call 911, and starbucks is known for a hangout place i dont understand what trouble they could have caused.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the call to the police was not justified because it seems that the white folk that had been at the scene said that they did the same thing that the black gentlemen had done and not been talked to. I do believe that the police had not done anything wrong because they were called out because someone was trespassing and they had to deal with it. Luckily, the charges were dropped and the CEO offered an apology. Hopefully, all these trainings that are happening will help with racial bias.
ReplyDeleteAll these two men did were just in Starbucks to meet up with a friend and the employee was suspicious and called the cops on them for what? For not buying coffee? For just sitting down waiting for a friend. Why do we have to judge everyone especially those who look different than us. Starbucks is really wrong about the situation and had no right in calling the cops over two black man sitting down just waiting for someone to talk business.
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