'Racial discrimination': Inquiry ordered by mayor following arrests of black men at Starbucks
The video shows two men waiting for their friend at Starbucks being arrested because the staff claimed they were trespassing. Photo: Reuters
(Web Desk) – After a social media stir following a video showing two black men handcuffed at Starbucks in Philadelphia, mayor Jim Kenney has called for an inquiry over the policies of the company that has been accused of ‘racial discrimination’.
The video shows two men waiting for their friend at Starbucks being arrested because the staff claimed they were “trespassing”. As seen in the video, the men were handcuffed and then taken out.
According to The Guardian, Mayor Jim Kenney said on Saturday that he was “heartbroken” to see the news that appears “to exemplify what racial discrimination looks like in 2018”.
@Starbucks The police were called because these men hadn’t ordered anything. They were waiting for a friend to show up, who did as they were taken out in handcuffs for doing nothing. All the other white ppl are wondering why it’s never happened to us when we do the same thing. pic.twitter.com/0U4Pzs55Ci
— Melissa DePino (@missydepino) April 12, 2018
The report in The Guardian further says that the mayor has asked the Commission on Human Relations to see what the company’s policies are and also “including the extent of, or need for, implicit bias training for its employees”.
Philadelphia’s police commissioner Richard Ross, who is also black, defended the arrests by saying that the men were asked to leave thrice but they refused. Ross said that since they asked to use the restroom but did not order anything, the staff called the police because they believed they were trespassing.
Meanwhile, BBC reported that CEO of Starbucks, Kevin Johnson, has apologised. In a statement he says that he personally apologises to the black men involved in the incident and that the call to the police should never have been made. “The video shot by customers is very hard to watch and the actions in it are not representative of our Starbucks mission and values,” read his statement.
The video has sparked outrage with people gathering the very next day to protest over the incident. The CEO of the company has said that he is looking into investigations to prevent such incidents from happening.
