Where did Starbucks go wrong?
Manhattan: As a small business owner in the service industry, I must admit there is a dilemma when you are faced with what happened at Starbucks this past week. Over the past 30 years, I’ve encountered numerous individuals who enter my establishment “to use the bathroom” or is “just waiting for a friend.” Ninety-five percent of the time, there are no issues. However, on many occasions over those years, purses, cash on the bar or cash left on tables as a tip or payment of the check have been taken.
I’ve always told my staff to be careful and watchful when a person or persons come in and linger and don’t buy anything. They are also told to ask them to leave if they linger too long.
That being said, Starbucks is a major corporation with thousands of employees. I have passed many Starbucks over the years and have seen what appear to be homeless people just sitting in the corner with nothing in front of them. I’ve always assumed it was company policy to allow this.
The young manager in Philadelphia seemed to have taken matters in to her own hands. The company needs to put forth a standard for all stores and signage for customers as to their policy. Keith McAleer
Black coffee
Manhattan: I am a brownskinned middle-aged black woman who has patronized Starbucks for more than 20 years. I go to several different Starbucks several times a week, just to ask for a free Venti ice water. Only once at a busy shopping mall was I told that I could only order a Tall because I was not a paying customer. I promptly walked out and never visited that Starbucks again. I did not blame it on race but on bad customer service. The two black men who were arrested could have purchased something just to acquiesce; however, they did not have to. I have seen many customers, including myself and other black people, use Starbucks restrooms without purchasing a thing. Malcolm X said that a black man with a Ph.D. is still considered a racial epithet. That could not be more true in the eyes of the manager at the Philadelphia Starbucks. Roxy E. Ryan Astoria: What has become glaringly obvious during the Starbucks brouhaha is that blacks think they’re above the law. At no establishment can you sit or use the bathroom without a purchase. All these guys had to do to avert this was buy a cup of coffee, which is why they didn’t. What is delicious is the bonfire of the vanities between the warring grievance groups in its wake, specifically Tamika Mallory and her mob objecting to the Anti-Defamation League being involved. The only victim in all this is the manager, who was fired for managing while white. Brad Morris
Smart kids vs. Israel
Brooklyn: Barnard College has long been one of New York’s finest schools, and many of its students and graduates have been New Yorkers. Usually Barnard College has made New York proud, but not now. Half of the student body voted in a student government election, and of those students, 64% voted in favor of a measure aligned with the goals of the ugly, mendacious BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) ideology that seeks to destroy Israel. These students showed poor judgment and much prejudice. Ellen Levitt
The speaker vs. Palestinians
Manhattan: City Council Speaker Corey Johnson’s trip to Israel and related statement celebrate ethnic cleansing and human rights violations. Johnson is not only on the wrong side of history; he is complicit in the hate, and the crimes, committed by the state of Israel. At a bare minimum, Johnson should be supporting the right of Palestinians to freedom of speech and assembly — specifically for the protesters in Gaza. Johnson should be calling on Israel to end its brutal siege of 1.8 million Palestinians.
John Francis Mulligan
Look in the mirror
Wallingford, Conn.: Kashawn Lyons and Terrick Whitaker are not responsible for Matthew Azimi’s death (“Drug dealer busted after selling Bronx school teacher deadly dose of fentanyl,” April 6). Azimi chose to take drugs and, to quote the article, zimi bought a hypodermic needle from CVS. So he knew what he was doing. It’s called taking personal responsibility. His widow should be ashamed of her husband, not thrilled with the arrests of the two suspects. It’s probably not the first time Azimi took drugs, since he knew to buy hypodermic needles. Feel sorry for her or her children? I think not. Society as a whole needs to take personal responsibility for their actions, not blame someone else. John Pinter
Just disgusting
Middle Village: What a disgrace that the April 18 edition of the Daily News did not feel that the passing of one our country’s most distinguished First Lady, Barbara Bush, warranted the full front page; news of her death was relegated to Page 10, no less. Meantime, you felt the need to publicize the photo and comments of a moron, Alex Jones. This total lack of respect further demonstrates the continual demise of the ideals of many in this country, as well as the evident erosion of your publication.
Robert Vessa
Bashing Barbara
Staten Island: I’m not usually a Voicer but I had to comment on the fact that the Daily News put a short obituary item for former First Lady Barbara Bush on page 10. Does the Daily News no longer have respect for real news and good people? Judy Clarke
Responsibility first
Brooklyn: State Sen. Jamaal Bailey wants to address the issue of few black and Hispanic students in our elite high schools, which are world-famous, by basically using a quota system without saying that. What the good senator should look more closely at is the disarray and dysfunction that exists in a lot of those families. When you have absent parents, children out until to 2 in the morning and no conventional moral standards in a home, the results are failing grades which a quota cannot fix.
Dennis Walker
Listen up, Chuck
Bronx: Did anyone ever try to send an email to U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer? When you go to his website you have to fill out a lengthy form and include your Social Security number. Why? This only goes to show that Schumer really doesn’t want to get emails from the public.
JoLinda Celentano
The real agenda
Laurelton: Take a hard, honest look at why politicians wanted to open racinos and casinos in New York and now look to legalize recreational marijuana. It’s so that they can suck ever more money out of the communities in this state that can least afford it, and turn people into stupefied zombies who are dependent on them for their pitiful existence.
Will Lertola
Nobody’s home
Highland Mills, N.Y.: Meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago, our dope in charge could not control his braggadocio and reminded all viewers watching of what a splendid and beautiful palace it is and that everyone wants to stay there. If this insensitive fool had a heart, soul or any redeeming quality at all, he would open the doors of his estate (or any of his numerous hotels) to the residents of Puerto Rico — who are still struggling with power outages. He is a disgrace and a pitiful human being on every level.
Elizabeth Profiro
Justice for the little people
Manhattan: How can we ask New Yorkers to respect our criminal justice system? A rich tax cheat owes $22 million in taxes. Our government “of the people” — that is, the rest of us — can only hope to collect a fraction of that. These crooks owe the rest of New York’s taxpayers $500 million, yes, half a billion. An innocent but poor man is kept in jail for months if not years, loses his job, his home, maybe his family, for his inability to scrape up $150 bail? The judges, in their infinite wisdom, have decided that the state must “prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that a tax cheat intended to break the law. Apparently six years of massive tax fraud isn’t sufficient to prove intent. Ridiculous. There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Helen Hill Updike
On the side of the angels
GETTY Parsippany, N.J.: God bless the Sandy Hook parents in this legal pursuit (“Defamed by the devil,” editorial, April 18). What emotional strength the grieving parents of these precious children have. Alex Jones will be getting everything that is coming to him. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy I can think of . . . except one.
Ted Halpern