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| Re: 2 Men Arrested In Philly Sbux For Waiting While Black (1511364) | |||
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Re: 2 Men Arrested In Philly Sbux For Waiting While Black |
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Posted by JayZeeBMT on Sat Apr 14 15:02:31 2018, in response to Re: 2 Men Arrested In Philly Sbux For Waiting While Black, posted by Easy on Sat Apr 14 13:38:35 2018. Detailed Philadelphia Inquirer story.When the friend showed up, he informed the police officers that the two Black men were waiting for him, that they were commercial real estate agents, and that they were, in fact, supposed to do a business meeting with him. The cops insisted it was too late for the trio to meet somewhere else, and hauled the two Black patrons off to the police station. They told the friend the pair had been "asked to leave", but refused, therefore committing the crime of "defiant trespass", which in Pennsylvania is a printable offense. Numerous other patrons wondered aloud why the two men would have been "asked to leave", when they were merely sitting calmly, awaiting their friend's arrival. Other witnesses say no barista or other Starbucks employee approached either man, and that the barissta blindly called the police without ever speaking to them, but this, of course, is in dispute. What is NOT in dispute on the video, is that the pair were, in fact, waiting quietly for the other party to arrive, as tens of thousands of Starbucks customers do daily, without incident. Why they were singled out for arrest is an open question, especially since they were both later released without charges of any kind. I myself have been in this Center City Starbucks a few times (it's at 18th and Spruce, near the Gayborhood), and I've seen many (white) patrons come in, sit down without ordering anything, and wait for their companions without anyone saying a word, much less calling the police. The usual suspects here aside, racism is more real in America today, than at any time since the Civil Rights era. Waiting While Black is now part of the long, long lost of things people of color cannot do without either getting arrested or shot. |
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