Center City Starbucks Arrest

What initially should have been an ordinary Thursday afternoon at the Center City Starbucks took a bizarre twist as two black men were led out in handcuffs. On April 12, Tashon Nelson and Donte Robinson were arrested at the Philadelphia Starbucks after a manager called 911 to report that the two had been sitting in the cafe without making an order.

The video footage below documents the arrival of the police and the subsequent arrest of the two men. As can be seen in the video, Nelson and Robinson had planned on meeting a friend at the cafe, and were waiting for their friend before ordering anything. When that friend arrived, he demanded to know why the police had been called upon Nelson and Robinson, a question which continued to ring out among the ensuing protests which followed the highly controversial event. Following the publication of the video, the hashtag #boycottstarbucks rose to the trending page of Twitter, prompting a Twitter statement from Starbucks that Saturday, and another in-depth, official statement was released late Saturday. Many protesters view these actions as too little, too late; however, Starbucks has gone on to announce a new training program planned for May 29 which aims to combat the bias which led to the racially-motivated arrest on Thursday.