Were they arrested for being black in a public place?

[PLC1]

Two black men were arrested waiting at a Starbucks. Now the company, police are on the defensive.

Starbucks, which has touted its progressive values and its “social impact” agenda, faces fierce criticism and calls for a boycott after two black men were arrested at a Philadelphia store, sparking accusations of racial profiling over what the company’s chief executive called a “reprehensible” incident.

In a statement, CEO Kevin Johnson offered “our deepest apologies” to the two men on Saturday, who were taken out of the store in handcuffs by at least six officers. A store manager had asked the two men to leave after they asked to use the bathroom but had not made any purchases, police said. The men declined to leave and said they were waiting for a friend, their attorney later said. The manager then called 911 for assistance, the company said.

Six officers escorted them out of the store in handcuffs for having asked to use the restroom without having made a purchase?

Were they supposed to sit at the back of the bus as well?

 

[dogtowner]

They were loitering as I understand it. Waiting on others to meet. Over reaction ? Yeah probably but it is Philly.

 

[Old_Trapper70]

Two black men were arrested waiting at a Starbucks. Now the company, police are on the defensive.



Six officers escorted them out of the store in handcuffs for having asked to use the restroom without having made a purchase?

Were they supposed to sit at the back of the bus as well?

Of course they were. Racism is the new/old thing in America.

https://www.thenation.com/article/selma-and-the-unfulfilled-promise-of-civil-rights/

What history of the civil-rights movement should we tell today? How do the political gains of an era marked by hope and possibility look from our contemporary vantage point? Our conditions, after all, seem to call for pessimism. Like Ronald Reagan before him, Donald Trump has pandered to law enforcement. Like Bill Clinton, he has justified attacks on the American welfare state that disproportionately hurt people of color. Like Richard Nixon, he rode into the White House with a call for law and order, and he and his cabinet hope to dismantle the few anti-racist protections left intact. The absurdity of reliving these previous administrations today, as if we were living in 1981, or 1993, or 1969, would be satirical if it were not so plausible. Just over a year into Trump’s presidency, the fragile state of racial justice in America can only produce a deep sense of despair.

While researched and written before Trump’s election, Karlyn Forner’s Why the Vote Wasn’t Enough for Selma, a history of the Alabama city and surrounding Dallas County, seems to appropriately reflect the tenor of our time. Her book begins with the economic distress faced by many African-American residents of Selma, who today constitute almost 80 percent of the city’s population (approximately 19,000 people). According to the Census Bureau’s 2016 estimates, the median household income in Selma is $23,000; 41 percent of its population lives below the poverty line; and only 17 percent hold bachelor’s degrees. This bleak portrait is a far cry from the popular image of Selma—the site of the heroic march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a major turning point in the fight for the vote—as a symbol of the civil-rights movement’s triumphs. How could the town whose name became a rallying cry for the federal protection of black people now be home to such intense poverty?

To answer that question, Forner goes as far back as 1901 to offer a long view of the civil-rights movement and to examine both its achievements and the white backlash that counteracted its gains. She maps the transformation of black tenant farmers into low-wage industrial workers and the unemployed, and tracks how local white government officials and businessmen adapted to these changes in order to find new means of profiting from African-American labor while reasserting the South’s racial hierarchies. “Whichever way you look at it,” Forner writes, “the political and economic history of Dallas County doesn’t offer much in the way of prosperity, harmony, and success.”

 

[Old_Trapper70]

They were loitering as I understand it. Waiting on others to meet. Over reaction ? Yeah probably but it is Philly.

There was no posted sign saying "no loitering", and they were even denied the opportunity to use the bathroom.

 

[Texas_tea]

Two black men were arrested waiting at a Starbucks. Now the company, police are on the defensive.



Six officers escorted them out of the store in handcuffs for having asked to use the restroom without having made a purchase?

Were they supposed to sit at the back of the bus as well?

Some businesses only allow patrons to use the restrooms.

There's a reason for that especially in larger cities.

I am sure had the men left the premises after being told the restrooms were for customers only then there would not have been any trouble.

 

[Old_Trapper70]

Some businesses only allow patrons to use the restrooms.

There's a reason for that especially in larger cities.

I am sure had the men left the premises after being told the restrooms were for customers only then there would not have been any trouble.

And if the slaves in Texas had sat quietly in their appointed places there would have been no trouble. This could even apply to the Chinese (Chinese Exclusion Act), Japanese (Japanese Internment Act), Native Americans (Treaties which were soon violated), and the list goes on. In fact, after the "Texas Revolution" ended, the "Constitution of the Republic of Texas" made slavery legal with the provisions of the Constitution forbidding any slave owner from freeing his slaves without the consent of Congress, and prohibited Congress from making any law that restricted the slave trade, or emancipated slaves.

 

[PLC1]

They were loitering as I understand it. Waiting on others to meet. Over reaction ? Yeah probably but it is Philly.

Do they arrest white people for waiting on others to meet in Philly, or is it somehow against the law to be black in public there? I've never been to Philly, so I'm not sure.

I've waited for friends in local Starbucks, though, and haven't been arrested for it.

 

[dogtowner]

Do they arrest white people for waiting on others to meet in Philly, or is it somehow against the law to be black in public there? I've never been to Philly, so I'm not sure.

I've waited for friends in local Starbucks, though, and haven't been arrested for it.

Were you also wanting to use the bathroom ?
Were you notified bathroom privileges were for patrons and were asked to leave and refused ?
Loitering is a problem.

 

[PLC1]

Were you also wanting to use the bathroom ?
Were you notified bathroom privileges were for patrons and were asked to leave and refused ?
Loitering is a problem.

I'm an old man. I always have to use the bathroom. No one had a problem with it.
and "loitering" is what people do at Starbucks.

 

[dogtowner]

I'm an old man. I always have to use the bathroom. No one had a problem with it.
and "loitering" is what people do at Starbucks.

I too am a old fart so I always know where bathrooms are. But I will buy something if I'm at a starbucks for that reason.
Loitering is specifically NOT patronizing. It's an extension of vagrancy laws. Malls are happy to have people come for the a/c and to let oldsters exercise because empty malls look bad.
But this is a place of business and if you don't intend to do some business, you really need to move along irrespective of race color or creed.

 

[PLC1]

I too am a old fart so I always know where bathrooms are. But I will buy something if I'm at a starbucks for that reason.
Loitering is specifically NOT patronizing. It's an extension of vagrancy laws. Malls are happy to have people come for the a/c and to let oldsters exercise because empty malls look bad.
But this is a place of business and if you don't intend to do some business, you really need to move along irrespective of race color or creed.

So, when I'm waiting for friends meeting at Starbucks, I'm trespassing and subject to arrest. Good to know.

 

[dogtowner]

So, when I'm waiting for friends meeting at Starbucks, I'm trespassing and subject to arrest. Good to know.

Wait outside. Simple.

 

[PLC1]

Wait outside. Simple.

I don't. Maybe if I were black, I would.

 

[dogtowner]

I don't. Maybe if I were black, I would.

Do you plan to go in and not patronize ?

 

[PLC1]

Do you plan to go in and not patronize ?

Sometimes. Sometimes, I'll buy something there.