Agree or disagree with calling the police?

If two white men had told that manager, “we’re waiting for another party to arrive, and he will be here shortly”, that would’ve been the end of it. They wouldn’t have been asked to leave, and the police certainly wouldn’t have been called. On the tape you can hear and see several customers (white customers, btw) insisting, “but they weren’t doing anything wrong ! What’s going on ?” And meanwhile, the third man did arrive—in time to see his friends being led off in handcuffs for basically just being there. 😒

Not totally sure. Perhaps the location had been robbed before? Or the manager had been robbed before. We really don't know her motives.

But, I'd feel guilty into a restaurant and just sitting around. At least order a cup of coffee or a pastry.

And if asked to leave, I'd leave. Why goad police officers into arresting you unless you wanted attention?

Just because other people sit around without ordering anything doesn't really make it the right thing to do.

To be completely honest, I've done just what these guys in Philadelphia did. I use Starbucks as a business meeting place. It is cheaper than paying for space at an incubator. It is easy for people to find. People can buy drinks in advance using an app.

And yes. I've done exactly what these guys have done. I go to Starbucks and plant myself and wait for my people. I use the restroom. I soak up the WiFi. Sometimes I buy a drink. Or food. Sometimes my peeps do. Or not.

It's never been an issue.

I can only attribute that to two things.

One is that an astute manager will realize that the success of their cafe is based in part on it being seen as a community meeting place. People meeting there is more valuable than nickel and dimeing a few drinks. Keep the people meeting there and the drinks and cookies will be bought.

The other is that I'm white AF. My colleagues are white AF for the most part. We're about as benign as it gets. Especially in a college town. A middle aged bald guy with a laptop (me) talking to a middle aged woman with grey hair with a lap about is about as boring and nonthreatening as it can get.

Agree or disagree? I don't know. I wasn't on the ground in Philly.

I do have to ask why I'm not thrown the hell out of my Starbucks...

Those guys were asked to leave since they were not paying customers but they refused and chose to make it about race. Same would have been done to homeless people and others who treated the place like public property. Imagine being a paying customer and not being able to sit whilst others are lazying around and not paying ...
They refused to leave. Manager did not have a choice.
Agree.

calling the police was wrong, but so was arresting two people who hadn’t done anything wrong

Disagree...overreaction on mangers part.

I was at Denny's once a few years back and my husband(was married then)and I left, because they told a black couple to just sit and wait a minute,(On the bench in the enterance of resturant) and then seated all the white couples that came in after them and then tried to seat us and I said "No, I guess we will eat somewhere else tonight, why don't you seat that couple over there."
Got a fairly dirty look over it.
The point is this stuff happens, not often, but it still happens.

In this case, I totally disagree with calling the police, it was blatantly racist (see the reaction/comment of the white customers a couple of tables away, for instance)

They had no right to call the police, they were just waiting for someone and it's not a crime to wait for someone. It's only logical to put two and two together to say that this was a case of racial profiling.

It shouldn't have happened.

Some cafes, restaurants do ask people to leave if they sit around without buying anything. Provided they do that to everybody without bias then it's not racism - that's the part we don't really know. Were these people asked to leave just because they were sitting around without buying anything, or was it because they happened to be black. Provided Starbucks did not base the decision on race then I would say it's okay to do what they did.

There are a lot of things disturbing about this incident. Although the media is treating this as a racial incident, I think we are all better off treating this as a people issue. Would this have been in every newspaper in America if it had been two white guys? The goal of a free and just society is that everyone gets treated with respect and dignity.

(1) ... Does Starbucks have a time-limit about how long people can sit without buying anything? Or just sit when they do buy or intend to buy something?

(2) ... Did the store manager not first approach the patron to investigate before calling the police?

(3) ... Why did the police not first ask the two patrons to step outside so they could investigate and speak to both the customers as well as the store manager? An in-store arrest, especially in a crowded restaurant, regardless of whether there were or weren't justifications, should have been avoided.

I wait for people all the time in coffee shops. Sometimes I don’t buy anything because it’s a quick stop. I’ve never been arrested for it

Disagree,Starbucks should just stop letting people hang around waiting for others and using Wi-Fi like it's a rest stop,they created a problem by allowing it to continue. The manager was totally wrong for calling the cops on those guys who were just doing what Starbucks allows.

I find it difficult not even being in that country, all I will say is I have been in plenty of resturants,fast food and cafe in UK where they would ask you if you're going to purchase anything, to me it's the height of rudeness to go into a place of business taking up a table that can earn them takings and not purchase something..you meet outside if that's the case..

impressive how fast the made that manager disappear

First, it wasn't a "Starbucks" decision; it was the action of a single manager.

And while she undoubtedly reacted with bias at least unconsciously, this manager isn't inherently evil or insidious. She's ignorant of better, more equitable means of acting towards people. The answer to ignorance is education, not derision and taunts.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/starbucks-executive-chairman-howard-schultz-racial-bias/

People should be arrested for using the police as their personal racist bodyguard. Waste of time.

I've already commented on this, but thought I would add this. I don't really envy the job of the store manager or employees.

I am currently sitting at a Starbucks in Seattle, sipping an ice tea, and pretending to work.

A homeless woman walks in. She looks like she's in her early 50s, but pretty weathered. Wearing sandals, short fabric shorts and a tank top, half of her teeth gone, wild hair. The store manager is a black woman, and the two employees are Chinese women.

The woman starts yelling: nigger lovers, Jews, kick them out. She wants the black guy and the Chinese guy playing a chess game to be kicked out, and she continues to scream the same thing over and over. It's clear she's off her meds. The store manager has no choice but call security. They come and escort her out, onto the street.

but it really wasn't Starbucks...it was one stupid, ignorant bigoted manager who called them. The cops didn't do the right thing either...they were surrounded by WHITE customers telling them that THEY TOO had been sitting there without purchasing anything and no one bitched about that but the cops didn't bother assessing the situation, they just cuffed and arrested the two men. I don't blame the company this time

Racially profiling people is something new?

Fuck tha police