Ronn Torossian, CEO, 5WPR 

When the manager of a Philadelphia Starbucks called the police to forcibly remove two black men from the premises, that manager likely thought they were following protocol… Most of the people who saw the now viral video thought otherwise. Now, Starbucks is apologizing, the city is apologizing, and it’s rumored the manager is no longer employed… though that has not been confirmed. 

The PR disaster began when two black men entered a Starbucks restaurant to, they said, wait for a friend who would be joining them. An employee asked if they would be ordering. Then the manager asked. When the men declined to order, the manager called the police. 

Local police arrived, cuffed the men and arrested them, just as their friend arrived at the store. The men spent the morning in custody before being released. No charges were filed. 

A witness in the Starbucks, Melissa DePino, recorded the scenario and posted it on Twitter. Radio talk shows and websites picked it up, and the post blew up on social media. Millions of views and nearly 100,000 retweets. Boycotts and sit-ins were planned. 

On the video, several onlookers could be heard asking the police what the men had done wrong. Most asserted they did nothing out of order. Later that day, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross would be saying the same thing about his officers: They did nothing wrong. The public, largely and loudly, disagreed.

 Ross said his officers followed protocol after being called about a trespassing complaint from the Starbucks manager. The officers asked the men to leave. They refused and were arrested, only to be released, according Ross, because “Starbucks was no longer interested in prosecuting.” 

After the onslaught of outrage on social media, as well as the immediate calls for a boycott and other protests, Starbucks issued an apology on Twitter: 

“We apologize to the two individuals and our customers and are disappointed this led to an arrest. We take these matters seriously and clearly have more work to do when it comes to how we can handle incidents in our stores… We are reviewing our policies and will continue to engage with the community and the police department to try to ensure these types of situations never happen in any of our stores.” 

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney had this to say: “I am heartbroken to see Philadelphia in the headlines for an incident that — at least based on what we know at this point — appears to exemplify racial discrimination… For many, Starbucks is not just a place to buy a cup of coffee, but a place to meet up with friends or family members, or to get some work done. Like all retail establishments in our city, Starbucks should be a place where everyone is treated with same, no matter the color of their skin.” 

So, apologies have been issued, and, recently, Starbucks announced it would be closing all its stores for a day in the month of May to re-train employees on how to address these issues.