Black men arrested in Philadelphia Starbucks agree to meet with CEO

The two black men arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks last week have agreed to meet with the company’s CEO for a “face-to-face” apology.

Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said on Monday’s “Good Morning America” that he hopes to meet with the two men arrested to personally apologize. 

{mosads}”I’d like to have a dialogue with them so that I can ensure that we have opportunity to really understand the situation and show some compassion and empathy for the experience they went through,” Johnson said.

A spokesperson for the company told CNN that the meeting has not been scheduled yet. 

A store manager called police to the location last Thursday because two African-American men hadn’t ordered anything while waiting for a friend to arrive.

Another customer filmed the two men being taken away in handcuffs by officers. The clip went viral online, earning almost 10 million views as of Monday. 

@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

The district attorney’s office said it declined to press charges against the two men because there was no evidence of a crime.

Johnson also told “Good Morning America” that he will order store managers to undergo “unconscious bias” training because it was “completely inappropriate to call the police.” 

“I’ll say the circumstances surrounding the incident and the outcome at our store on Thursday were reprehensible,” Johnson said. “They were wrong, and for that, I personally apologize to the gentlemen that visited our store.”

As Johnson was being interviewed, about two dozen protesters appeared outside of the Philadelphia location chanting “Starbucks coffee is anti-black,” ABC reported.