International Business Times By Keerthi Mohan July 16 2013 — Members of the Deaf Chat Coffee group were reportedly "shocked and frightened" when police officials arrived at the Starbucks outlets. According to the lawsuit, the police responded to a call made by employees of the Starbucks outlet, who complained of a disturbance following a meeting, which the employees alleged was being conducted without a permit.
Reportedly, the Starbucks workers said that a number of people in the group were non-paying customers. The lawsuit added that the officers apologized to the gathering when they found no illegal conduct had occurred, and reprimanded staff members for calling the police.
Can this be true? Read the headlines.
International Business Times
Starbucks Sued By Deaf New York Customers For Discriminatory Behavior, Patrons Say They Were Mocked
The lawsuit was filed last week in federal court in Manhattan on behalf of 12 people, and it stated that Starbucks workers laughed at them, and called the police to evict them from the coffee shop.
An official post on the Starbucks website said: "We take these allegations very seriously, and believe they are neither consistent with our values nor our track record of engaging the Deaf community both as partners and as customers."
USA TODAY July 15, 2013 NEW YORK (AP) — 
For years the Deaf community gets together at different places. The types of places varied – they’d go to a mall, restaurant, bar, you name it. Some would do get-togethers at deaf clubs. All that changed a few years ago. People saw coffee shops such as Starbucks as a relaxing, comfortable place to meet and chat and proceeded to set up deaf socials nationwide. In Honolulu it is the 2nd Friday of each month from 6:00 PM to 12:00 AM.
