I'm having trouble condemning the company and police on this one.
I grant that the store manager might have been a racist, but that is probably something we will never actually know for sure. It is also something that the company probably doesn't know for sure, which means it will be tough to fire them on the basis of this incident alone.
As to the company, if there is a policy where you must buy something in order to hang out (which seems reasonable, btw), then it seems like that policy was being enforced. If that policy is enforced un-evenly then that is a problem, but it is very difficult for me personally to know how it is enforced, since if a white person were removed it wouldn't be in the news.
As to the police, once the store manager says the two guys are trespassing, then the police HAVE TO remove them. That is their job. They could be the most racist/supremacist officers known to man, and it would still be their job to remove the two guys who refused to leave. If the guys refused their order, then an arrest would happen.
What am I missing about this story that is making people talk of boycotts?
UPDATE: The two men are speaking out: (
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-starbucks-arrest-20180419-story.html)
"Seattle-based Starbucks Corp. has said the location where the arrests occurred has a policy that restrooms are for paying customers only."
"Nelson said they weren't questioned but were told to leave immediately." (by the cops)
- This makes the cops look much worse, like they didn't even try to ask the men to leave before starting to order them around.
