Videos showing two black men handcuffed and removed from a Philadelphia Starbucks have drawn outrage and prompted police investigation.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports one clip posted Thursday on YouTube shows police talking to the men for several minutes before handcuffing them and escorting them out of the Center City establishment.
A second shorter clip shows a white man, who says he was meeting with the two, asking police what the men did wrong. He calls their arrest "ridiculous." A female voice is heard saying "they didn’t do anything."
@Starbucks The police were called because these men hadn’t ordered anything. They were waiting for a friend to show up, who did as they were taken out in handcuffs for doing nothing. All the other white ppl are wondering why it’s never happened to us when we do the same thing. pic.twitter.com/0U4Pzs55Ci
— Melissa DePino (@missydepino) April 12, 2018
Neither Starbucks nor police would comment on what led to the arrests.
Starbucks said it was reviewing what happened and called the outcome "unfortunate."
Police said they are conducting an internal investigation.
The two men have since been released.
Below is the Philadelphia Police Department’s response to the incident.
