Black man arrested at Starbucks is member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity
One of the men featured in the video showing police arresting two Black men for sitting in Starbucks in a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
This morning, the Grand Basileus of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Antonio F. Knox, Sr. released the following statement:
The times that we are living in continue to unveil the bold and dark side of racism through the lense of ready cameras of witnesses that record the injustices that are reported daily. The latest incident on the news around the world touched our Omega family as one of the young en arrested at the Starbucks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is an Omega Man and remarkable example of resilient courage in the face of undeserved fire. I thank God for his sense of presence and calm because the encounter with police officers could have been very different. While we won’t yet releases names, please know that this Basileus and Chapter Brothers have been in touch. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jrl, said, “Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.”
The CEO of Starbucks Kevin Johnson is on the ground in the City of Brotherly Love after two black men were shown no love and locked up by Philadelphia police for simply sitting in the coffeehouse while waiting for a friend.
A viral video that shows the unnamed men being handcuffed and ushered out of Starbucks started a firestorm on social media, with many questioning why an employee called the cops on the men for doing something so many white people do daily.
CEO Kevin Johnson appeared on Good Morning America and did not mince words about what happened. He issued a straight-forward apology.
“First of all, I’ll say the circumstances surrounding the incident and outcome in our store on Thursday were reprehensible and wrong, and for that I personally apologize to the two gentleman who visited our store,” he told anchor Robin Roberts.
He said that different regions where Starbucks stores operate implement different guidelines for when to call police, and that’s part of what led to this case. He maintained that it was still “completely inappropriate” to get police involved.
“If there were threats or a disturbance, those might be appropriate times. In this case, none of that occurred. It was completely inappropriate to engage police,” he said. “What happened to those two gentleman was wrong.”
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