Starbucks is in damage control after a video went viral over the weekend showing two black men being arrested at a Philadelphia store.
The men, who have not been identified, walked into Starbucks and sat down. They asked to use the bathroom, but an employee refused because they hadn’t ordered anything, and after the men refused to leave, workers called police who arrested them for trespassing. A customer captured the arrest on video which has gone viral and has also led to calls to boycott Starbucks.
The company apologized on Twitter saying, “We apologize to the two individuals and our customers and are disappointed this led to an arrest. We take these matters seriously and clearly have more work to do when it comes to how we handle incidents in our stores.” CEO Kevin Johnson called the arrest a “reprehensible outcome” and promised to issue a “face-to-face” apology to the two men. But many protesters are saying it’s too late for apologies and demand immediate change. (NBC News)
Fasho Thoughts:
- Lots of people sit inside Starbucks without ordering anything. So what was the problem?
- Police say they had every right to arrest them because they were asked to leave and refused.
- The problem here is not that police arrested them. The problem is that Starbucks workers insisted that they leave for no good reason.
- Most businesses don’t want people to just hang around without ordering anything.
- Starbucks should fire the employees who called the police.
Source: CS / CS
