Mark Herz: Retired GBH senior investigative reporter Philip Martin just made the news himself recently after a troubling encounter in a cafe near in Central Square in Cambridge. Philip is an award-winning and prominent journalist and he joined GBH’s Morning Edition to talk about this experience and its meaning. It’s always great to see you, I wish this time it was about something else, but here we are. So please explain what happened.
Phillip Martin: Let me just say I wouldn’t be explaining this if I didn’t think it impacts other people. None of us like to make the news and the fact that this happened is problematic. I was standing in line of a line of maybe seven or eight people. I came up to the [counter] person who I’d never seen before, and I’m often at Caffe Nero this is not a first time, I don’t live too far from Central Square. The person behind the counter looked at me and she said, no, we are not serving you. We’ve been told by my boss not to serve you. And I said, you must be mistaken. There has to be a problem. She said, no, we looked at the video and it’s you. And I say, the video, tell me more about the video. And she says, no. She says, next. Turns to the next person in line. And she insisted that I was some person who... They were told not to allow into the restaurant. She said it loudly enough that the entire cafe heard her. I thought about, of course, what happens in situations like this once she said she would call the police. I decided at that point to call the police [myself] because I know from my own reporting that you have to have some type of parity, create some type parity if it does not already exist in terms of racial dynamics. And it doesn’t matter who’s behind the counter, by the way, racial bias plays into our decision-making oftentimes, regardless of race. But anyway, I thought I could let it go, but I did not. And when the police arrived, they told me I could not return to the cafe. I spoke to them outside the cafe, I was meeting with a freelance journalist, Naomi Kooker, who heard this entire encounter, the entire restaurant, I should say cafe, heard this. But anyway, needlessly, Mark, it was problematic. Because I’ve reported on this type of thing.
Herz: And I just want to add in, you’ve mentioned race. For those who somehow don’t know who you are, know about you, you are a Black man. And so presumably you were mistaken for another Black man, which is at this point even just a trope and a terrible one.
Martin: Well, it’s important to state, you know, this is a salient point, that according to the Marshall Project, which investigates criminal activity, prisons, jailings, so on and so forth, eyewitness misidentification and racial bias significantly contribute to the misidentifications of Black men within the U.S. riminal justice system. And it starts with something that’s innocent, as a misidentification at a counter in a restaurant or a cafe or a store. So on and so forth. Once the police are involved, misidentification becomes a major, major issue. If anyone who dares to assume this is not problematic, they don’t understand how racial bias plays into these decisions in the United States.
Herz: And you, and as you say, you’ve reported on this, you have a piece of tape here that you wanted us to hear about this, right? Well, yeah.
Martin: Well, yeah, quite interestingly, not long ago, I interviewed a fellow named Alonzo Sawyer and his wife, Carrone, and this is in Maryland. Alonzo Sawyer was misidentified as a suspect in an assault and robbery case, and he spent days behind bars until Maryland acknowledged that they had made a mistake. Now, this is frequently the logical conclusion of misidentification of black men, and the reason why I’m intent on getting Caffe Nero to guarantee a policy that will better protect all its customers. Here’s the tape, my interview with Alonzo Sawyer and his wife.
Carrone Sawyer [on tape]: Immediately when I saw the video, I just knew it wasn’t my husband. The detective was like, well, you can’t tell by that because sometimes your identity and sometimes everything is a bit off. I said, but I’m telling you, I’m looking at this guy. This is not my husband, much younger, you know, I just know my husband’s stature, the way he stands.
Alonzo Sawyer [on tape]: Everything just kept running in my mind, like this is like a Black man’s worst nightmare.
Martin: It is indeed, and that is the reason why some people might consider this of making a mountain out of the molehill. That this is not this. This is a need to have Caffe Nero acknowledge that this is problematic, trying to determine if they have a policy in place of, for example, videos that identify people who come into the cafe. And it’s understandable that people would want to protect themselves in these cafes, by the way, or a store, or anyplace else. But they have to be exactly, precisely sure that the person they’re identifying is the right person. The probability... is not accepted when there’s so much at stake in the context of our criminal justice system and in the way we react to these types of problems.
Herz: Yeah, did you want to talk about how it felt? Because, you know, I’ve mentioned, you’re an illustrious journalist. I mean, your resume alone could take up a few minutes here. And in addition to a caste system of race in this country, we have a caste of class. Clearly, people like you and me sitting here, we belong to some kind of upper class. And I think, you know, there’s a feeling of maybe somehow that creates a bubble around you. Like you said, you live in the neighborhood. I mean you’re a permanent person.
Martin: But that’s just it, Mark. I have never been under the illusion that class, my class, ascending from a very poor background to a middle class background would protect me from anything. And it doesn’t really. It does to a degree, let’s be honest. The way an American passport used to protect people when they would travel abroad used to. But you’ve never been protected by race. I felt humiliated standing at that counter. And people have understand the depth of humiliation as a black person and as a Black man, that that is like something that is like, [phone rings] oops, sorry about that. Oh, that’s quite interesting. I have the governor calling, and I will call her right back.
Herz: OK
Martin: But they have to understand that the depth of humiliation is not something that can be simply set aside and said, oh, well, we’ve gone through that as well. And we’ve never had a problem. If you’re a black man or a black woman in this country, it is a whole different situation, as many other people, Native Americans, others can attest to.
Retired GBH News senior investigative reporter Phillip Martin recently made the news after being refused service at Cambridge café. Martin met with people from Caffè Nero’s corporate team Tuesday afternoon and accepted their apology, he told GBH News.
Martin was meeting another journalist at Caffè Nero in Central Square when a staff member mistakenly identified him as someone who had previously caused a disruption at the café.
“The person behind the counter looked at me and she said, ‘No, we are not serving you. We’ve been told by my boss not to serve you,’” Martin recalled. “And I said, ‘You must be mistaken. There has to be a problem.’ She said, ‘No, we looked at the video and it’s you.’”
He said the café worker refused to answer his questions about the video, then turned to the next person in line. After she said she was going to call the police, Martin decided to do the same.
“I know from my own reporting that you have to have some type of parity — create some type parity if it does not already exist — in terms of racial dynamics,” he said.
The Cambridge Police Department confirmed that officers responded to the café, where they spoke separately with Martin and staff members.
“Staff members told officers they had recognized Mr. Martin and asked him to leave as they believed him to be the same customer who had been disruptive in the store a few days prior,” Sgt. Bob Reardon, a spokesperson for the department, said in a statement to GBH News. “It was ultimately determined to be a misunderstanding and staff allowed Mr. Martin to return to the business.”
Martin said he initally spoke out about the incident because this type of situation also impacts other people. He reviewed the video and doesn’t think the person he was confused for looks anything like him.
But after speaking with the corporate team, Martin feels the situation is resolved.
The company’s U.S. chief operating officer Paul Morgan told Martin by email that he was “mortified” by last Thursday’s incident, according to a copy of the email Martin shared with GBH News. Morgan wrote that the Central Square location team has received in-person training in response to the incident, and that all stores will receive a podcast recorded by the company’s Head of People.
“This was not acceptable, and we are taking this very seriously. Our goal is to ensure that this cannot happen again,” Morgan wrote.
A Caffè Nero spokesperson offered “a sincere apology” to Martin in an emailed statement to GBH News.
“This was a genuine case of mistaken identity due to the close similarity of height, build, and style of beard and glasses with a customer who had been responsible for significant anti-social behaviour previously,” the spokesperson wrote. “While it is not acceptable to confuse any customer with another, the prior incident was traumatic for the barista involved and it triggered her response.
Martin said racial bias often plays into people’s decision-making, and it’s an issue he’s reported on throughout his career in journalism. He noted that eyewitness misidentification and racial bias contribute to the disproportionate number of Black men in the criminal justice system.
“It starts with something that’s innocent, as a misidentification at a counter in a restaurant or a café or a store. Once the police are involved, misidentification becomes a major, major issue,” Martin said.
Shortly before his own case of mistaken identity in Cambridge, Martin interviewed Alonzo Sawyer, who was arrested after being mistakenly identified from video footage in Maryland.
“There’s so much at stake in the context of our criminal justice system and in the way we react to these types of problems,” Martin said.
