INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
of Starbucks on Monday called for "unconscious bias" training for store managers and apologized for what he called "reprehensible"
circumstances that led to the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia store last week.Kevin Johnson said in an interview on "Good Morning
America" that the company was reviewing the actions of the store manager who had called the police
Johnson said that "what happened to those two gentlemen was wrong.""My responsibility is to look not only to that individual but look more
broadly at the circumstances that set that up just to ensure that never happens again," the executive told interviewer Robin Roberts.Johnson
is expected to meet with the two men, the company said
Exactly when the meeting would take place was not immediately clear.Protests continued Monday at the Starbucks where the men were arrested
People initially gathered outside but were driven inside by heavy rains
"Good Morning America" described the protests inside the Starbucks as "a stand-in."At about 6 a.m
Monday, a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter tweeted that roughly 40 protesters were at the Starbucks in a relatively upscale neighborhood of
One person in the crowd hoisted a sign that read, "Is she fired or nah" - a reference to the store manager who called the police
Others chanted, "Anti-blackness anywhere is anti-blackness everywhere."Starbucks said later Monday that the store manager "is no longer at
that store.Just before 1 p.m., a reporter tweeted a photo of a sign outside the Starbucks that said the location was temporarily
closed.Rosalind Brewer, Starbucks' chief operating officer, talked about the company's call for unconscious bias training for store managers
in a morning interview with NPR and called the incident a "teachable moment for all of us." She said that as an African American executive
with a 23-year-old son, she found the cellphone videos taken of the Thursday afternoon incident painful to watch. "It would be easy for us
to say that this was a one-employee situation, but I have to tell you, it's time for us to, myself included, take personal responsibility
here and do the best that we can to make sure we do everything we can," Brewer told NPR.At least two cellphone videos captured the tense
moment when at least six Philadelphia police officers stood over two seated black men, asking them to leave
One officer said that the men were not complying and were being arrested for trespassing."Why would they be asked to leave" Andrew Yaffe
Yaffe runs a real estate development firm and wanted to discuss business investment opportunities with the two men
"Does anybody else think this is ridiculous" he asked people nearby
"It's absolute discrimination."The two unidentified men were taken out in handcuffs soon after
They were held for nearly nine hours before being released, said Lauren Wimmer, an attorney who represented the men over the weekend
No charges were filed, authorities said.One of the videos of the arrest rocketed across social media, with more than 9 million views by
Monday morning.Benjamin Waxman, a spokesman for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, said over the weekend that the office decided
that there "wasn't sufficient evidence to charge [the men] with a crime."Johnson said Monday morning that there are scenarios that warrant a
call to police - including threats and other disturbances - but that in this case, "it was completely inappropriate to engage the
police."The police were criticized for their handling of the situation
On Monday, the department referred to the police commissioner's Facebook Live video from Saturday
Commissioner Richard Ross said in the video that one or both of the men asked to use the restroom but had not purchased anything
An employee said Starbucks company policy was to refuse the use of the bathrooms to non-customers and asked the men to leave, according to
The employee called the police when they refused."These officers did absolutely nothing wrong
They followed policy; they did what they were supposed to do
They were professional in all their dealings with these gentlemen," Ross said in the video
"And instead, they got the opposite back." Ross said police arrested the men after they refused three requests to leave.Ross, who is black,
said he was aware of issues of implicit bias - unconscious discrimination based on race - but did not say whether he believed it applied in
He said the incident underscores the need for more body-worn cameras to present different perspectives of police responses
The officers were not wearing cameras, he said.Starbucks does not have a companywide policy on asking members of the public to leave, a
The company leaves safety and customer service protocol decisions up to store managers, said a company official who declined to give a name
to freely describe internal discussions
Managers may leave restroom doors unlocked or add key-code entries if they feel the store is more at risk of criminal behavior
A store in the same area of Philadelphia was hit with an armed robbery recently, the official said.The Starbucks official acknowledged that
the incident is at odds with a common practice at Starbucks
The stores are "community" hubs, the official said, where people often drop in to use the WiFi or chat with friends without necessarily
buying anything.Wimmer, the attorney who represented the two men, said she spent a good portion of her time in law school in Starbucks
without buying much and never had a problem with store employees
The incident was about race, Wimmer, who is white, said
She suggested an experiment: Go to a Starbucks and assess the demographics of people sitting there."Who is the manager going to call and
say, 'Please leave' " she asked.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
