First of all, thank God no one was hurt. Sadly, in any interaction between the police and PoC this is the first thing that comes to mind.
Second, I’m not completely absolving the cops on this one since, to an extent, they came in and did their job under the circumstances. But I don’t think it had to get to a point where people were handcuffed and detained, unless they refused to leave even after the cops told them to do so. They were simply waiting for a friend to show up—who arrived as they were being handcuffed—but were told to leave because one of them asked to use the restroom and they hadn’t ordered anything. As if lounging about is a rare occurrence at Starbucks.
Finally, this is on Starbucks. Whoever made the call to involve the police fucked up royally. Racial profiling on display in all its infamy. Ugh.
[CNN: A video of black men being arrested at Starbucks. Three very different reactions.]
