Starbucks Apologizing After Arrest Of Two Black Men at Store Goes Viral

Starbucks is apologizing after two black men were arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks in a video that has since gone viral. 

The video posted on Twitter by user Melissa DePino, shows several police officer handcuffing two black men while bystanders argue with the officers saying that the pair had done nothing wrong and didn't deserve to be arrested. 

One officer says police received a call from the store. The man replies, "What did they get called for? That there are two black guys sitting there meeting me?" 

Another bystander chimed in, saying, "They didn't do anything. I saw the entire thing." 

The coffee chain giant said they plan on reviewing its policies to make sure the same type of incident didn't happen again. 

"We apologize to the two individuals and our customers and are disappointed this led to an arrest," the statement read. "We take these matters seriously and clearly have more work to do when it comes to how we handle incidents in our stores."

But in a statement released on the department's Facebook page, Philadelphia Police Commissioner defended the officers, saying that they "did absolutely nothing wrong" and had the legal standing to arrest the pair. 

"[The officers] followed policy, they did what they were supposed to do, they were professional in all their dealings with these gentlemen, and instead they got the opposite back," Ross said in a video posted to the department's Facebook page.

"I will say that as an African-American man, I am very aware of implicit bias. We are committed to fair and unbiased policing, and anything less than that will not be tolerated in this department."


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