
Last night in Milwaukee Wisconsin members of Black Lives Matter descended on a Starbucks near Red Arrow park to complain about what they say is Starbucks’ racist policies towards black Americans.
But what exactly did Starbucks do and how does this relate to the shooting death of a mentally ill African American man in Red Arrow Park?
The Starbucks in question was being renovated and had setup a temporary location at a trailer in Red Arrow Park.
On the night in question Mr Hamilton was sleeping in the park and customers going through the park to the Starbucks trailer complained to employees about a homeless man sleeping in the park.
So the shop employees did what anyone would do, they called the police and asked them to have Mr Hamilton moved somewhere that was safe for both of them., preferably indoors. What happened next is a matter of speculation and witness accounts I’m not going to delve into.
The sad truth is, Starbucks isn’t to blame for this. The Milwaukee police aren’t to blame. Dontre Hamilton’s family allowed him to roam the sub-zero temperatures of Milwaukee and sleep on the street with a mental illness they knew made him prone to violent outbursts, not Starbucks and certainly not the Milwaukee police.