Cartoon by Michael Ramirez
Black men arrested at Philadelphia Starbucks feared for their lives
The Guardian: Two black men arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks said they were just waiting for a business meeting – and a week later still wonder how that could have escalated into a police encounter that left them fearing for their lives.
Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson spoke to the Associated Press in their first interview since video of their 12 April arrests went viral.
Robinson said he thought about his loved ones and how the afternoon had taken such a turn as he was taken to jail. Nelson wondered if he would make it home alive.
“Anytime I’m encountered by cops, I can honestly say it’s a thought that runs through my mind,” Nelson said. “You never know what’s going to happen.”
The arrests, recorded on a white customer’s cellphone video, galvanized people around the country who saw the exchange as an example of racism.
The men have met with the CEO of Starbucks and are pushing for meaningful change so what happened to them does not happen to anyone else.
Police this week released a recording of the call from the Starbucks employee that led to the arrest. In it, a woman is heard saying the men refused to “make a purchase or leave”.
Starbucks has promised to shut all 8,000 company-owned stores across the US on 29 May to train employees about unconscious bias.
Nelson initially brushed it off when the Starbucks manager told him he couldn’t use the restroom because he wasn’t a paying customer.
He thought nothing of it when he and Robinson, his business partner, were approached at their table and were asked if they needed help. The 23-year-old entrepreneurs declined, explaining they were just waiting for a business meeting.
A few minutes later, they hardly noticed when the police walked into the coffee shop until officers started walking in their direction.
“That’s when we knew she called the police on us,” Nelson said.
Nelson and Robinson, black men who became best friends in the fourth grade, were taken in handcuffs from the Starbucks in Philadelphia’s tony Rittenhouse Square neighborhood, where Robinson has been a customer since he was 15 >>>
What part of this is racism? She did her job. Starbucks is paying rents to do business in that space.
Police this week released a recording of the call from the Starbucks employee that led to the arrest. In it, a woman is heard saying the men refused to “make a purchase or leave”.
The police commissioner, Richard Ross, who is black, said in a Facebook post that arresting officers “did absolutely nothing wrong”, and added that Nelson and Robinson were disrespectful to officers.
Ross said officers did what they were supposed to do and were professional in their dealings with the men, “and instead they got the opposite back”.
Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, who is white, said what happened at the Starbucks “appears to exemplify what racial discrimination looks like in 2018.
On many occasions I have sat a bar waiting for friends or associates without ordering anything or sat at a table at the Starbucks and never anyone asked me to leave. The population of Rittenhouse Square where this Starbucks is located is only 3% black and that's the reason the manager felt empowered to go after these guys.
Here is the latest:
"I have to do better," Police Commissioner Richard Ross said during a news conference, adding, "Shame on me" for exacerbating the situation. "I should have used language that they 'followed the law,'" he said. "'Didn't do anything wrong' probably wasn't the best language to use."
The change in phraseology does not change much.
Compare;
Ross said officers did what they were supposed to do and were professional in their dealings with the men.
“I should have used language that they followed the law,’” he said.
Dear GR,
I truly appreciate the fact that you are so engaged in the US affairs, my affairs, our affairs, while living in Japan. But your main source of the news, Fox, is up to no good. Just look at the sexual harassment cases and the recent resignations.
The Vagrancy Laws in the US are fairly wide and discriminatory towards the poor, the homeless and the minorities and you see it in action in the Starbucks case, where the police did what they were told to do based on what the managers said. The good news is that the manager is no longer there and Starbucks President who grew up as a poor person in a housing project in Boston is trying to fix this problem.