What part of this is racism? She did her job. Starbucks is paying rents to do business in that space.

Police this week released a recording of the call from the Starbucks employee that led to the arrest. In it, a woman is heard saying the men refused to “make a purchase or leave”.

The police commissioner, Richard Ross, who is 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”.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, who is white, said what happened at the Starbucks “appears to exemplify what racial discrimination looks like in 2018.

On many occasions I have sat a bar waiting for friends or associates without ordering anything or sat at a table at the Starbucks and never anyone asked me to leave. The population of Rittenhouse Square where this Starbucks is located is only 3% black and that's the reason the manager felt empowered to go after these guys.

Here is the latest:

"I have to do better," Police Commissioner Richard Ross said during a news conference, adding, "Shame on me" for exacerbating the situation. "I should have used language that they 'followed the law,'" he said. "'Didn't do anything wrong' probably wasn't the best language to use."

The change in phraseology does not change much.

Compare;

Ross said officers did what they were supposed to do and were professional in their dealings with the men.

“I should have used language that they followed the law,’” he said. 

Dear GR,

I truly appreciate the fact that you are so engaged in the US affairs, my affairs, our affairs, while living in Japan. But your main source of the news, Fox, is up to no good. Just look at the sexual harassment cases and the recent resignations.

The Vagrancy Laws in the US are fairly wide and discriminatory towards the poor, the homeless and the minorities and you see it in action in the Starbucks case, where the police did what they were told to do based on what the managers said. The good news is that the manager is no longer there and Starbucks President who grew up as a poor person in a housing project in Boston is trying to fix this problem.