A group of black customers raised an issue with their bill - so the restaurant called the police

A manager of a restaurant in Cleveland, Ohio has been accused of racial profiling after calling the police to ensure that a black sorority paid their bill.

According toCleveland.com, the incident occurred at the Bahama Breeze Restaurant in Orange Village on Tuesday.

Around 40 members of the Delta Sigma Theta had met at the restaurant but problems began to arise when the group had to wait for their bill to arrive.

After 25 minutes of waiting one woman in the group claimed that she was going to leave without paying.

The report states that although she was with the group she wasn't a member of the sorority.

Eventually, the bill did arrive and the woman in question paid her share but at this point, the manager had already called the police and wanted them to stay in the building until all of the customers in the party had paid.

Chante Spencer spoke to Cleveland.com as a customer of the venue and was not speaking on behalf of the sorority. She said:

Police were standing there to make sure everyone paid, which we felt was racial profiling.

You cannot make assumptions that people are going to commit a crime based on how they look.

The manager is reported to have said that the members of the group were causing a "disturbance" and began using profanities that were aimed at her.

The police are said to have arrived at around 8:30pm that evening and stayed for an hour but did not charge the group for any crimes.

The restaurant is owned by the Florida-based Darden company which runs several other chains around the United States.

Rich Jeffers, the senior director of communications released a brief statement to Cleveland.com. He is quoted as saying:

We clearly fell short of delivering great service, and we've invited the guests back in order to provide an exceptional Bahama Breeze experience.

That being said Chante disputes the manager's account of the evening and that no one had threatened to leave without paying.

Around 25 people were part of the reservation, most of whom were black and female, yet a dozen more turned up unexpectedly which may have contributed to the poor service.

She added:

I am hoping that Bahama Breeze looks at this very carefully and alters policies and does some more training.

You cannot make assumptions that people are going to commit a crime based on how they look.

This isn't the first incident of a US restaurant calling the police on black customers this month.

Just last week a video went viral of a couple in Florida being arrested after they were overcharged for a drink in a branch of Waffle House.

HT New York Post

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