Men arrested at Starbucks speak out ... Thanx to ABC News
This posting will serve as Part 31 of the "Incarcerated American" series, to review the situation and arrest of Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson, 2 entrepreneurs arrested at Starbucks in central Philly for "defiant trespassing". This has got widespread mainstream media coverage, and made many angry, which is a good thing, because it brings to light one more time, the way things really are in our country, and what really needs reforms and change. I also had a few people in my community ask me about this, which is another reason for this posting. Then of course you have the online typical political responses, and folks criticizing these young men, many expressing racism themselves while hiding their identities on their phones and computers. And the usual crowd that say "this was all staged" etc ... but the reality is, this happens all over America on a daily basis in these communities, that look at everyone that is not as polished as themselves, as undesirable, this is the new wave fashion trend of capitalism on steroids, and shaming and discriminating people on class and race. I myself have seen this first hand, over and over and over ... and its worse today, than it was 30 years ago. It was appropriate first, to hear out Rashon and Donte, in the video above ... this was their first public statements on this today. I wanted to include the HuffPost piece below, out of several I read, because Prof. Anthea Butler really hits the spot in her piece. Also a video below with activist Eugene Puryear, interviewed by Eddie Conway. Eddie Conway himself, spent 43 years and 11 months of his life in prison, over a bunk trial and conviction ... Eddie today is Executive Producer of TRNN. A link below that, of some history of issues with Starbucks, and things like race. After, I will add my part below.
***** HUFFPOST: Starbucks Arrests Show How Gentrification Endangers Black Lives ... (newsread)
Starbucks and the Criminalization of Blackness ... Thanx to TheRealNews
***** THE OUTLINE: A short timeline of Starbucks' fraught history with race ... (newsread)
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***** PD/ RCJ: "INCARCERATED AMERICAN" ... PART'S 30 THRU 1
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Thomas Hudson Pickering/ Ranch Chimp
As far as the officers call response, request of subjects, and arrest ... I myself just see the officers as following the book on this ... and if one of these officers had the red- ass, it could have led to charging these guyz with other charges related to failure to comply or whatever. Both men handled themselves well too, making it so the tension with officers wouldnt escalate. But, there is usually choice/ discretion for the officer to use their own judgement on the way they want to handle it, which if the officer is too lenient, can backfire on the officer, as you can see in this case, where a local officer here in the DFW Metroplex was punished, because he did the "right thing", but Walmart wanted the suspect arrested. But I figured they could have just issued a citation, without further detainment/ arrest, I seen citations issued in Dallas for example, without arrest ... the charges were dropped of course, but these men were jailed for at least 8 hours. In this case with Rashon and Donte, the manager who called police, didnt expect the police to arrest them (her own claim), but to ask them to leave ... nor did these men do anything out of the ordinary or criminal. The problem is, that this manager that called 911 to report this, done so within a couple minutes only ... these guyz barely just walked in the door, and asked for some code or key for the restroom ... they were refused, based on they needed to make a purchase ... the establishment has the right to ask that too, or to refuse service even, depending on the circumstances, and there wasnt no circumstances, beyond what any customer routinely does. Bottom line, the manager was too hasty, and did not even assess the situation properly ... and in my view, just panicked and lost her cool ... these gentlemen certainly didnt. I have myself went into places like this, and said I was waiting for someone to arrive, when asked ... and I certainly was not going to order a thing without the person I'm waiting for arriving yet ... I never got any static from staffs. I dont know about Starbucks much, I only been in there like 3 times, and just with someone else that wanted to go there ... I'm not into coffee or related, I just drink lots of water and vegetable juices, I'm hyper as it is without caffeine ... I know my daughter is a regular there, and works from there when away from the office. I didnt even know they have restrooms locked, never used their restroom, or noticed any signs saying "no loitering" or whatever, from what I gather, many folks loiter in there, and Starbucks sort of welcomes it as a hangout type atmosphere for their customers and friends ... that's all these guyz were doing.
It's an issue today, because racism is broadened more with classism, which Anthea Butler sums up perfectly in the HuffPost read above, this Rittenhouse district in central Philly, is one of them gentrified communities. This is going on all over American cities ... I'm sure in Philly, they will probably expand that up into Kensington as well, or other lower income communities. Gentrification is needed in urban America too, because there is so much that is old and deteriorating, but that gentrification should be done with the community in mind. Culture playz a big part in making a community, and much of this gentrification ends up culturally bland and deficient of character ... with endless corporate trendy chain joints, overbloated rent/ prices, and is only done to make as much profit quickly as possible, and turn it over/ sell to someone else that dont give a shit ... turning out highly polished plastic environments/ communities, that most can hardly afford. This gentrification should also broaden hope and inspire those with an American Dream, and invigorate progress, diversity, small investments, and help unify. They say they want to integrate, share, learn, diversify, and other horseshit to sell these plans/ developments to cities, while draining city budgets to throw too much money into these private ventures, calling this crap "public/ private partnerships". In a "public/ private partnership", BOTH public and private should have input/ voice ... what these have been, is private investors calling ALL the shots of where our dollars will benefit "them" most, with no consideration for the "public", then if the investor makes bad decisions and has a loss, they want the public to pay for it all. And when economies take a hit and downturn, even the yuppie puppies that could once afford these joints flee ... same as when these gas prices go up, used car lots are stuffed with SUV trade- ins for sale, because people dump their SUV's for smaller gas efficient vehicles ... this tells you that there is no planning for future growth and longevity of their investments, but just a fast buck, to sell a bunch of cheaply developed properties and businesses, for the highest price grab, and let the tax payers and communities handle any losses on bad investments. Gentrification planning, should include making as much affordable places as well ... you can bet, that there will be more demand, and sustainable demand and business with affordable properties, than strictly multi- million dollar properties and leasing. You are not integrating, but segregating, based on race and class only.
Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson was quick to take responsibility, which was the right thing to do, and this Starbucks issues goes back even before Johnson became CEO ... and Johnson also met with Rashon and Donte. But Starbucks had to also do this, because of past problems related, and the fact that boycotts and loss of customers will hit them where it hurts most ... profits. Probably one of the worst and most horrible cases from some of this Starbucks culture of calling cops on so called "undesirable" looking people, was with Dontre Hamilton in Milwaukee. Dontre, was NOT in the Starbucks, Dontre was on a bench at a park near Starbucks, when folks in Starbucks called the cops on him. Dontre was severely beaten, then shot at point blank range from the torso up, 14 times by the responding police officer who lost his head ... it was what most would consider ... an extreme brutal murder. This discrimination, abuse/ brutality, and murder of innocent people in our country ... is all over "quality of life crimes", which is not a criminal offense, but a mindset and culture to persecute and harm those, who have not as much as those complaining about them. Starbucks said they will close roughly 8000 stores for a half day for training in sensitivity and how to handle things better. This is certainly a plus, and they said they will forfeit millions in business for those hours in doing so ... but knowing the size of this corporation, I would guess that it will also be written off on taxes too. Not just boycotting Starbucks will change things, but importantly, focusing on these local governments to legislate changes, especially in business and police policies. The training classes is a plus, but it is difficult to change the minds and hearts of some of the people that discriminate, without legislative and community force/ pressure. And NO, I dont think the people overreacted to this ... it was justified and in order ... put yourself in their shoes, and see how you would feel about what happens to these people, and the lengthy history of it. These people are justified in their outrage, it is NOT radical ... it is in order. These people are customers too, they fuel the engine economically as well ... they are alwayz told to comply with this or that ... business and government needs to comply with the people, consumers and communities as well, it's not a one way street. As Rashon points out above, this is not just a black issue, this is an American peoples issue. I wish the best for Rashon and Donte on their business ventures, and getting past this.
Word Out ....
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***** RANCH CHIMP JOURNAL "WELCOME" POST
***** RCJ MUSIC/ ART'S HONOUR ROLL SOCIETY (my hand- selected music/ arts picks)
***** "THE RESISTANCE | PERILS OF THE POWER POSSE" ... ( a 2 part futuristic Ranch Chimp Journal dream to dream on )
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If anything, the police should have given the manager a citation (or whatever they do) for abusing the 911 system. This wasn't remotely an emergency.
ReplyDeleteI don't know anything about Kevin Johnson personally, but it wouldn't surprise me if his response, and the closing of the stores for training, is mostly a result of him seeing this incident exploding into an out-of-control public-relations disaster. Being perceived as racist is bad for business, at least for most businesses, and Starbucks has a huge presence here in the liberal northwest where I live. They could lose big if they let this incident define them -- boycotts and loss of customers, as you said.
I figured the same, as far as bad publicity, because even may whites are looking down on it. I think they said the closures may run them about $12 million in lost revenues, for that half day of 8000 locations ... but I look at that as a tax write- off. I was a little surprised myself on the "911" call and a half dozen officers showing up for something like this ... but probably because it is a good neighbourhood, as far as incomes and business ... it's like Yuppieville too, they get a bit more atencion at times than lower income folks. ... Yeah, Thanx for your input here, Infidel.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me they could have saved 12 million dollars by simply firing the mgr when he was leaving stupid announcements about closing stores. Shortsightedness at it's finest. People want to see action that is fair...not pandering to the media.
ReplyDeleteone thing that jumped out at me was the fact that both of these young men showed maturity in the face of this stupidity. Think about how this would have been reported if they had resisted the handcuffing and started a melee inside the store. Completely different reaction of the public and may have turned out with injury. It was a great opportunity to announce to those who DO resist to stay calm, cops, therefore, stay calm and no one got tazed, shot or bludgeoned. They set a great example and it should have been noted.
Unknown: Yeah, I thought it went pretty smooth too. Starbucks said the manager is gone from the store ... where? ... I dont know. Good points though ... and Thank You
ReplyDeleteI'd like to say that I will personally boycott Starbucks in protest, I can't because I've never so much as set foot in one of their establishments to begin with (the closest I come is that there is a Starbucks counter in the store where I do much of my grocery shopping). That doesn't mean, however, that I consider this deplorable - but I find Starbucks deplorable. I prefer to patronize local merchants, like Fuel Cafe.
ReplyDeleteEric ... I like to support the smaller places as much as possible myself. Fuel Cafe? ... first I ever heard of it. Thanx for your voice here.
ReplyDelete