Police chief defends officers’ actions in viral Starbucks arrest video
Videos posted online show officers handcuffing the men in the downtown establishment Thursday
Melissa DePino@missydepino
@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.
“What did they do,” one man can be heard saying in the video. Another says, “They didn’t do anything, I saw the entire thing.”
Late Saturday, Starbucks’ CEO Kevin Johnson issued a statement saying the situation had a “reprehensible outcome.” He promised the company has “immediately begun a thorough investigation of our practices.”
Johnson insisted “Starbucks stands firmly against discrimination or racial profiling.”
Melissa DePino@missydepino
