Several videos that went viral showed police officers handcuffing two men and leading them out of the store, over the protestations of bystanders who said “they didn’t do anything.”
Philadelphia authorities said the men had been sitting in the cafe and asked baristas if they could use the restroom, though they hadn’t bought anything. Police said that when the Starbucks employees declined and asked them to leave, the men refused and one barista called the police.
In one video, a white man, who media outlets identified as Andrew Yaffe, says he was there to meet the two men. He argued with one of the police officers, calling the arrests “ridiculous.”
“What did they do?” Yaffe asks repeatedly. When one officer tells him that the police department received a call from the store, he replies, “What did they get called for? That there are two black guys sitting here meeting me?”
At that point, a bystander pipes up: “They didn’t do anything. I saw the entire thing.”
Johnson on Saturday said the videos of the incident were “very hard to watch,” and called outcome “reprehensible.” His statement outlined several steps he said he would take to reconcile with the men and ensure the incident won’t happen again in the future.
Watch one of the videos below:
@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. pic.twitter.com/0U4Pzs55Ci
@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. pic.twitter.com/0U4Pzs55Ci
— Melissa DePino (@missydepino) April 12, 2018