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News Investigation 4, Danielle Mangum.docx

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PHILADELPHIA -- Rashon Nelson initially brushed it off when the Starbucks manager told him he couldn't use the restroom because he wasn't a paying customer. He thought nothing of it when he and his business partner, Donte Robinson, were approached at their table and were asked if they needed help. The 23-year-old entrepreneurs declined, explaining they were just waiting for a business meeting.

A few minutes later, they hardly noticed when the police walked into the coffee shop -- until officers started walking in their direction.

"That's when we knew she called the police on us," Nelson told The Associated Press in the men's first interview since video of their April 12 arrests went viral.

Nelson and Robinson, black men who became best friends in the fourth grade, were taken in handcuffs from the Starbucks in Philadelphia's tony Rittenhouse Square neighborhood, where Robinson has been a customer since he was 15.

The video, recorded on a white customer's cellphone video, galvanized people around the country who saw the exchange as modern-day racism. In the week since, the men have met with Starbucks' CEO and have started pushing for lasting changes to ensure what happened to them doesn't happen to anyone else.

"We were there for a real reason, a real deal that we were working on," Robinson explained. "We put in a lot of time, energy, effort. ... We were at a moment that could have a positive impact on a whole ladder of people, lives, families. So I was like, 'No, you're not stopping that right now.'"

Robinson said he thought about his loved ones and how the afternoon had taken such a turn as he was taken to jail. Nelson wondered if he'd make it home alive.

"Anytime I'm encountered by cops, I can honestly say it's a thought that runs through my mind," Nelson said. "You never know what's going to happen."

"CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King sat down with Starbucks' executive chairman Howard Schultz on Wednesday to discuss how the company is handling the incident.

"I'm embarrassed, ashamed. I think what occurred was reprehensible at every single level. I think I take it very personally as everyone in our company does and we're committed to making it right. The announcement we made yesterday about closing our stores, 8,000 stores closed, to do significant training with our people is just the beginning of what we will do to transform the way we do business and educate our people on unconscious bias," Schultz said.

Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney, who is white, said what happened at the Starbucks "appears to exemplify what racial discrimination looks like in 2018." Police Commissioner Richard Ross, who's black, said in a Facebook post that arresting officers "did absolutely nothing wrong," and added that Nelson and Robinson were disrespectful to officers.

Ross said officers did what they were supposed to do and were professional in their dealings with the men, "and instead they got the opposite back."

Nelson and Robinson originally were supposed to meet Andrew Yaffe, a white local businessman, at a Starbucks across town. But the plan changed, and they agreed to meet at the Rittenhouse Square location, where they'd met several times before on a potential real estate opportunity.

The black men arrived a few minutes early. Three police officers showed up not long after.

Nelson said they weren't questioned but were told to leave immediately.

Yaffe showed up as the men were being handcuffed. He can be seen in the video demanding an explanation for the officers' actions. Nelson and Robinson did not resist arrest, confused and unsure of what to think or what might happen next.

"When you know that you did nothing wrong, how do you really react to it?" Nelson said. "You can either be ignorant or you can show some type of sophistication and act like you have class. That was the choice we had."

It was hardly their first encounter with police, a rite of passage that becomes a regular occurrence for many black men their age. But neither had been arrested before, setting them apart from many of their peers in the gritty southwest Philadelphia neighborhood where they grew up.

Robinson briefly wondered what he might've done to bring the moment on himself.

"I feel like I fell short," he explained. "I'm trying to think of something I did wrong, to put not just me but my brother, my lifelong friend ... in this situation."

Attorney Stewart Cohen, representing Nelson and Robinson, said the men were illegally profiled. He pointed to Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race in hotels, restaurants, theaters and other public accommodations.

Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. has said the location where the arrests occurred has a policy that restrooms are for paying customers only.

In audio recordings released by police Wednesday, the employee who called 911 can be heard telling the operator, "I have two gentlemen in my cafe that are refusing to make a purchase or leave." In a subsequent communication between police and dispatch, someone says "we have a disturbance at the Starbucks" and refers to "a group of males inside causing a disturbance," and additional officers are sent. The Starbucks employee never called it a disturbance.

Nelson and Robinson spent hours in a jail cell with no outside contact and no sense of what would happen next. They were released after midnight, when the district attorney declined to prosecute them for trespassing. They had no idea the video of their arrests was making the rounds on the internet.

The day after their arrests, they thought about what to do next.

"You go from being someone who's just trying to be an entrepreneur, having your own dreams and aspirations, and then this happens," Nelson said. "How do you handle it? Do you stand up? Do you fight? Do you sit down and just watch everyone else fight for you? Do you let it slide, like we let everything else slide with injustice?"

Robinson, still focused on the previous day's business deal, called Yaffe to reschedule. Yaffe told him about the video and the traction it had gotten.

Over the weekend, attention and outrage over the video grew, prompting a protest at the local Starbucks restaurant and a national boycott. By Monday, the men were set to meet with Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson to discuss what happened.

Johnson has responded quickly to public outcry around the arrests, calling them "reprehensible," apologizing and ordering stores closed for mandatory training to tackle unconscious bias.

Nelson and Robinson said they're looking for more lasting results and are in mediation proceedings with Starbucks to implement changes, including the posting in stores of a customer bill of rights; the adoption of new policies regarding customer ejections, racial profiling and racial discrimination; and independent investigations of complaints of profiling or discrimination from customers and employees.

Robinson said he appreciates the public support the men have received but anger and boycotting Starbucks are not the solution.

"We need a different type of action ... not words," he said. "It's a time to pay attention and understand what's really going on. We do want a seat at the table."

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Black men arrested at Philadelphia Starbucks say they feared for their lives

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PHILADELPHIA -- Rashon Nelson initially brushed it off when the Starbucks manager told him he couldn't use the restroom because he wasn't a paying customer. He thought nothing of it when he and his business partner, Donte Robinson, were approached at their table and were asked if they needed help.

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PHILADELPHIA - Rashon Nelson initially brushed it off when the Starbucks manager told him he couldn't use the restroom because he wasn't a paying customer.

He thought nothing of it when he and his childhood friend and business partner, Donte Robinson, were approached at their table and were asked if they needed help. The 23-year-old entrepreneurs declined, explaining they were just waiting for a business meeting.

A few minutes later, they hardly noticed when the police came into the coffee shop - until officers started walking in their direction.

"That's when we knew she called the police on us," Nelson told The Associated Press in the first interview by the two black men since video of their trespassing arrests April 12 touched off a furor around the U.S. over racial profiling, or what has been dubbed "retail racism" or "shopping while black."

Nelson and Robinson were led away in handcuffs from the shop in the city's well-to-do Rittenhouse Square neighborhood in an incident recorded on a white customer's cellphone.

In the week since, the men have met with Starbucks' apologetic CEO and have started pushing for lasting change at the coffee-shop chain, including new policies on discrimination and ejecting customers.

"We do want to make sure it doesn't happen to anybody again," Robinson said. "What if it wasn't us sitting there? What if it was the kid that didn't know somebody that knew somebody? Do they make it to jail? Do they die? What happens?"

On Thursday, they also got an apology from Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross, a black man who at first staunchly defended his officers' handling of the incident.

"I should have said the officers acted within the scope of the law, and not that they didn't do anything wrong," Ross said. "Words are very important."

At a news conference, a somber Ross said he "failed miserably" in addressing the arrests. He said that the issue of race is not lost on him and that he shouldn't be the person making things worse. "Shame on me if, in any way, I've done that," he said.

He also said the police department did not have a policy for dealing for such situations but does now, and it will be released soon.

Nelson and Robinson said they went to the Starbucks to meet Andrew Yaffe, a white local businessman, over a potential real estate opportunity. Three officers showed up not long after. Nelson said they weren't questioned but were told to leave immediately.

Yaffe showed up as the men were being handcuffed and could be seen in the video demanding an explanation for the officers' actions. Nelson and Robinson did not resist arrest.

"When you know that you did nothing wrong, how do you really react to it?" Nelson said. "You can either be ignorant or you can show some type of sophistication and act like you have class. That was the choice we had."

It was not their first encounter with police. But neither had been arrested before, setting them apart from many of those they grew up with in their gritty southwest Philadelphia neighborhood.

Nelson and Robinson spent hours in a jail cell and were released after midnight, when the district attorney declined to prosecute them.

Nelson said he wondered if he'd make it home alive.

"Any time I'm encountered by cops, I can honestly say it's a thought that runs through my mind," Nelson said. "You never know what's going to happen."

Starbucks has said the coffee shop where the arrests occurred has a policy that restrooms are for paying customers only, but the company has no overall policy. The men's attorney, Stewart Cohen, said they were illegally profiled.

The arrests prompted protests at the Starbucks and a national boycott. Kevin Johnson, CEO of the Seattle-based company, came to Philadelphia to meet with the men, called the arrests "reprehensible" and ordered more than 8,000 Starbucks stores closed on the afternoon of May 29 so that nearly 175,000 employees can receive training on unconscious bias.

Robinson said that he appreciates the public support but that anger and boycotting Starbucks are not the solution.

The men said they are looking for more lasting results and are in mediation with Starbucks to make changes, including the posting in stores of a customer bill of rights; the adoption of new policies on customer ejections and racial discrimination; and independent investigations of complaints.

"You go from being someone who's just trying to be an entrepreneur, having your own dreams and aspirations, and then this happens," Nelson said. "How do you handle it? Do you stand up? Do you fight? Do you sit down and just watch everyone else fight for you? Do you let it slide, like we let everything else slide with injustice?" - (AP)

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2 Black men arrested at Starbucks get an apology from Philadelphia Police Commissioner

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PHILADELPHIA - Rashon Nelson initially brushed it off when the Starbucks manager told him he couldn't use the restroom because he wasn't a paying customer. He thought nothing of it when he and his childhood friend and business partner, Donte Robinson, were approached at their table and were asked if they needed help.

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The police have released an audio recording of the 911 call that led to the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia branch of Starbucks.

The arrests sparked accusations of racial profiling by both the company and the police.

In the phone call, which lasted only seconds and brought police officers to the branch, an employee at the coffee chain, believed to be the manager, asks police to come to the cafe.

"Hi, I have two gentlemen at my cafe that are refusing to make a purchase or leave. I'm at the Starbucks at 18th and Spruce," a Starbucks employee told police last Thursday just after 4.30pm.

It was this call which sparked a slew of apologies from the coffee giant and said it should never have been made.

Public outrage grew after the two African-American men were arrested at the branch.

The controversy prompted the multinational firm to announce it would close all 8,000 of its US stores for an afternoon in May to train baristas on how to come to recognise their racial biases and prevent racial discrimination occurring in its cafes.

The men had initially asked to use the bathroom inside the cafe but were told the branch's bathrooms were for customers only. They then sat at a table without ordering anything - something many observers have noted is a frequent occurrence at the chain's locations.

A manager called the police after the pair said they would not leave the premises because they explained they were waiting for a friend who arrived just as they were taken away in handcuffs.

The video of the ordeal quickly went viral - amassing 4.5 million views by Saturday evening.

The men were arrested for trespassing but no charges were filed. The manager in question is no longer working at the store.

The short 911 call was just one recording released by the Philadelphia Police on Tuesday, with authorities also releasing dispatch and officer communications.

In the recording, a police car is dispatched. Officers ask for backup and a supervisor due to a "disturbance at the Starbucks" involving a "group of males" and then officers indicate they are going to make arrests and transport the two men.

The "racial bias training" for the close to 175,000 employees nationwide Starbucks has organised is "designed to address implicit bias, promote conscious inclusion, prevent discrimination and ensure everyone inside a Starbucks store feels safe and welcome", according to a statement from the firm.

The incident has sparked protests outside the store and the #BoycottStarbucks hashtag has gained increasing traction on social media.

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Police release 911 call that led to the arrest of two black men at a Starbucks

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The police have released an audio recording of the 911 call that led to the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia branch of Starbucks. The arrests sparked accusations of racial profiling by both the company and the police.