Starbucks CEO apologizes for 'reprehensible' arrest of two black men

The CEO of Starbucks has apologized for an incident at one of the mammoth chain's Philadelphia cafes where two black men were arrested while waiting for a friend.

A video of the incident, posted Thursday on Twitter, was viewed millions of times and drew widespread condemnation on social media.

CEO Kevin Johnson, in a statement, expressed the company's "deepest apologies" to the men for what he said was the "reprehensible outcome" of the incident.


Johnson said the company would investigate and "make any necessary changes" to avoid a recurrence. "Starbucks stands firmly against discrimination or racial profiling," he said.

The video posted by a Starbucks client shows several uniformed police officers questioning and then handcuffing the two men, who offer no resistance.

In the foreground, a white client objects to the scene, repeatedly asking an officer, "What'd they do? What'd they do?"

The woman who posted the video, Melissa DePino, tweeted: "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 ... All the other white (people) are wondering why it's never happened to us when we do the same thing."

She said it was a Starbucks employee who called police.

The two men's pro-bono lawyer Lauren Wimmer, interviewed by a CBS affiliate in Philadelphia, said they were waiting for a third man to arrive for a business meeting.

Philadelphia police commissioner Richard Ross, who is black, said police had received a 911 call from a Starbucks worker who said the men were trespassing, after sitting down and refusing to buy anything. Ross said his men had "politely" asked the two to leave before finally arresting them.

The men were released after Starbucks declined to prosecute them.

Johnson, in his statement, said the store manager never intended for the men to be arrested, adding that he hoped to meet them personally "to offer a face-to-face apology."

The video drew widespread attention. Drummer Questlove of the group Roots tweeted a question: "Waiting in a Starbucks while black is a crime?"

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Gunman citing Islamic State ambushes Philadelphia policeman

PHILADELPHIA - A gunman claiming to have pledged allegiance to Islamic State militants shot and seriously wounded a Philadelphia police officer in an ambush on his patrol car, the city's police commissioner said on Friday.

Edward Archer of Philadelphia approached Officer Jesse Hartnett, 33, shortly before midnight and fired 11 rounds, three of which hit the officer in his arm, authorities said. Police released still images from surveillance video that showed the gunman dressed in a long white robe walking toward the car and firing, eventually getting close enough to shoot directly through the window.

Hartnett chased Archer, who was arrested by responding officers and later confessed to the attack, saying he had carried it out "in the name of Islam," police officials told reporters.

"He has confessed to committing this cowardly act in the name of Islam," Ross told a press conference, adding that the 30-year-old assailant also referenced Islamic State militants.

Philadelphia Police Captain James Clark added, "He said he pledges his allegiance to Islamic State, he follows Allah and that was the reason he was called on to do this."

A top U.S. Muslim advocacy group said it had found no evidence that Archer was an observant Muslim.

U.S. officials have been on high security alert following a series of Islamic State-linked attacks at home and abroad over the last few months.

In November, gunman and suicide bombers affiliated with Islamic State killed 130 people in a series of attacks in Paris. Last month a married couple fatally shot 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in an attack inspired by Islamic State.

Those concerns have led to calls by some Republican governors and presidential hopefuls to restrict the admission of Syrian refugees fleeing that country's long civil war.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, a Democrat sworn in on Monday, told reporters he did not believe Archer's actions reflected Islamic thinking.

"In no way shape or form does anyone in this room believe that what was done represents Islam," Kenney said. "This was done by a criminal with a stolen gun."

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the leading U.S. Muslim advocacy group, on Friday said Archer "does not appear" to be an observant Muslim.

At the Masjid Mujahideen mosque, which stands around the block from the home where Archer was believed to have lived, Imam Asim Abdur-Rashid said he did not know Archer and was not aware if he had ever prayed at the mosque.

"When it's time to pray, you get to wherever is closest," Abdur-Rashid said, adding, "There's no conflict between us and anyone in the world."

A woman who lived on the same block as Archer's mother but declined to give her name said police had responded to the house on occasion but described the suspect as "pleasant."

Neighbor Natalie King, 68, a retired public worker, said she had seen the man she knew as "Eddie" going to the mosque every Friday.

"He's a nice boy. I am shocked," she said.

NO SIGN OF CONSPIRACY

There was no evidence as yet that the shooter had worked with anyone else, Ross said.

"He was savvy enough to stop just short of implicating himself in a conspiracy," Ross said. "He doesn't appear to be a stupid individual, just an extremely violent one."

About a dozen FBI agents and city detectives could be seen on Friday afternoon searching a two-story row house in a working class West Philadelphia neighborhood where Archer was believed to have stayed at times and a second home just outside the city where his mother lives.

The house where Archer was believed to have stayed was about two blocks away from the intersection where Hartnett was shot.

Archer has a criminal history. Court records show he pleaded guilty in 2014 to assault and carrying an unlicensed gun, charges that got him a prison sentence of between nine and 23 months.

Archer's mother told the Philadelphia Inquirer that her son, the oldest of seven children, had suffered head injuries from football and a moped accident.

"He's been acting kind of strange lately. He's been talking to himself," and hearing voices, the newspaper quoted Valerie Holliday as saying. "We asked him to get medical help."

Hartnett was taken to Penn Presbyterian Hospital and will require several surgeries for three gunshot wounds in his arm.

Archer used a 9 mm handgun that had been stolen from a Philadelphia police officer's home several years ago, but not by him, Ross said.

In New York City, where two police officers were shot dead in their patrol car in a December 2014 attack by a man angry over police killings of unarmed black men, the police department issued a memorandum urging officers to "exercise heightened vigilance and implement proactive measures" in light of the Philadelphia shooting.

"Those who carry out attacks in the name of ISIS or any other terrorist organization must be fully prosecuted," said U.S. Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, using a common acronym for Islamic State. "We have to take every appropriate step to safeguard our communities and ensure safety."

(Additional reporting by Jason Szep and Andy Sullivan in Washington and Laila Kearney in New York; Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Bill Trott and Tom Brown)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

In America's birthplace, pope gives pep talk to immigrants

PHILADELPHIA - Pope Francis, speaking in America's birthplace on Saturday, offered stout words of support to Hispanic and other immigrants in the United States, telling them not to be discouraged at a time when some prominent politicians are directing hostility toward them.

The 78-year-old Argentine pontiff toured Independence Hall in Philadelphia before addressing a crowd estimated at more than 40,000 outside the 18th century red brick building where basic American liberties were proclaimed and where independence from Britain was declared.

"Do not be discouraged by whatever challenges and hardships you face," the pope told the many Hispanics and other recent immigrants to the United States in the crowd, adding that he felt "particular affection" toward them.

During his first visit to the United States, the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics on Thursday had urged Americans in a historic speech to Congress to reject "a mindset of hostility" toward immigrants. He expanded on that issue in his Philadelphia speech, delivered in Spanish.

Francis said immigrants "bring many gifts" to their new nation.

"You should never be ashamed of your traditions," Francis said to a round of applause. "I repeat, do not be ashamed of what is part of you."

Francis noted that U.S. history includes ending slavery in the 1860s and "the gradual effort to eliminate every kind of racism and prejudice directed at successive waves of new Americans."

"Remembrance saves a people's soul from whatever or whoever would attempt to dominate it or use it for their interests," he said.

Harsh rhetoric toward illegal immigrants has featured heavily in the race for the Republican nomination for the November 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Republican front-runner Donald Trump has called for deporting all 11 million illegal immigrants, most of whom are from Latin America like the pope, and has accused Mexico of sending rapists and other criminals across the border. He and many other Republicans also are calling for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter told the crowd before the pope's speech, "We are all immigrants. Whether we arrived 10 generations ago or 10 minutes ago, we cannot let the xenophobia and racism of some to carry the day."

The pope spoke from the lectern used by President Abraham Lincoln for his famed 1863 Gettysburg Address after the bloodiest battle of the U.S. Civil War that declared that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth."

In unscripted remarks on a separate subject, the pope also said globalization is good if it does not destroy the riches and distinctiveness of peoples. He said real globalization must respect different cultures equally.

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

The pope also promoted religious freedom.

"In a world where various forms of modern tyranny seek to suppress religious freedom, or try to reduce it to a subculture without right to a voice in the public square, or to use religion as a pretext for hatred and brutality, it is imperative that the followers of the various religions join their voices in calling for peace, tolerance and respect for the dignity and rights of others," the pope said.

Outside Independence Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra welcomed the pope with the thunderous timpani and soaring brass of Aaron Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" on the penultimate day of his six-day U.S. trip.

The pope traveled to Philadelphia from New York, where he flew over the Statue of Liberty and the former immigration station of Ellis Island aboard a helicopter in an unscheduled detour that gave him nostalgia for his home town Buenos Aires.

"You could see he was very, very moved," New York's Cardinal Timothy Dolan told reporters. "And he said 'You know, Buenos Aires was a city of immigrants too,'" Dolan said.

Francis, the first Latin American pope, has taken up the plight of immigrants a main issue of his papacy, along with climate change, economic equality and religious freedom.

The biggest crowds of the pope's U.S. visit are expected in Philadelphia, where some 1.5 million people are set to attend a Mass led by the pontiff on Sunday before he flies back to Rome that night.

In a homily at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Francis said the Church should give a greater role to lay members, especially women.

Although he does not support ordaining female priests, Francis urged the Church to value "the immense contribution which women, lay and religious, have made and continue to make, to the life of our communities."

(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson, Laila Kearney and Sebastien Malo; Writing by Will Dunham and Alistair Bell; Editing by Mary Milliken and Meredith Mazzilli)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

US East Coast braces for 'historic' blizzard on Monday

A swath of the U.S. East Coast from Philadelphia to New York City to Maine was bracing for a potentially historic blizzard on Monday that is expected to dump as much as 3 feet (90 cm) of snow and snarl transportation for tens of millions of people.

The National Weather Service on Sunday issued a blizzard warning for the northern section of the East Coast from Monday afternoon until Tuesday, placing states from New Jersey to Indiana under winter storm watches and advisories. Airlines were already canceling hundreds of flights ahead of the storm.

"This could be the biggest snowstorm in the history of this city," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told a news conference, saying snowfall could reach up to 3 feet.

De Blasio told residents of America's financial capital and most populous city to stay off the roads and to "prepare for something worse than we have seen before."

The biggest snowfall on record in New York City was the storm of Feb. 11-12, 2006, that dropped 26.9 inches (68 cm), according to the city's Office of Emergency Management.

The NWS called the approaching system a "crippling and potentially historic blizzard," with many areas along the East Coast expected to see between 12 to 24 inches (30-60 cm) of snow. The New York City area could be the hardest hit from the storm with lashing winds and snowfall of 30 inches (76 cm) or more in some suburbs.

Delta said on Sunday it was canceling 600 flights because of the blizzard warning for the East Coast. Southwest Airlines said it had canceled about 20 flights and American Airlines had so far canceled a handful.

Cities along the heavily populated East Coast had snowplows and trucks to dispense road salt on standby. Stores have seen a rush of shoppers stocking up on essentials.

"People have been coming in since this morning, buying rock salt and shovels," said Michael Harris, who works at Ace Hardware in Wading River, New York.

The Philadelphia Streets Department said on its Facebook page that crews were preparing for a "messy Monday morning commute." The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation told travelers to postpone travel if necessary and carry emergency kits if they do go out.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation will have its entire fleet of snowplows, including 12 loader-mounted snowblowers, prepared to deploy, the governor's office said.

The NWS expects as much as 8 inches (20 cm) of snow for western Maryland and southern Pennsylvania, while parts of New Jersey through eastern Massachusetts may get 6 to 12 inches (15-30 cm) of snow by Tuesday morning.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com