Barney's, Macy's, NYPD accused of racial profiling

What is going on here? It's a little hard for me to believe this is true, but now there have been 3 stories about almost the same thing in the last couple days or so:



Black College Student Arrested For Buying A Designer Belt

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Barneys New York and the New York Police Department have been slapped with a lawsuit by Trayon Christian, a college student from Queens, who was arrested at the luxury department store in April. "His only crime was being a young black man,” Michael Palillo, Christian's attorney, told The New York Post. The Post reports that the 19-year-old was at the store buying a $350 Salvatore Ferragamo belt, but following the purchase, he was stopped by undercover officers that were allegedly called on by a Barneys sales clerk who believed the transaction was fraudulent. The lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court, states that the NYC College of Technology freshman was asked by the cops: “how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt?” He was then handcuffed and taken to a local precinct. Despite showing the officers the receipt for the belt, his ID and the debit card used, "Christian was told that his identification was false and that he could not afford to make such an expensive purchase," Palillo said.

Another Black Shopper Accuses Barneys And NYPD Of Racism (UPDATE)

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Kayla Phillips, a 21-year-old nursing student from Brooklyn, told the Daily News that she was stopped by police after purchasing a $2,500 Céline bag at the store on February 28. After buying the luxury item with the money from a tax return, the woman left the Madison Avenue store. Three blocks away, she says she was surrounded by four undercover police officers -- two white, one African American and one Asian -- at a nearby subway station. “There were three men and a woman. Two of them attacked me and pushed me against a wall, and the other two appeared in front of me, blocking the turnstile," Phillips told Daily News. Phillips says the white officers, a male and female, questioned her for 20 minutes, inquiring where she lives, why she was in Manhattan and how she was able to purchase such an expensive bag.

Macy's Also Gets Slapped With Racial Discrimination Lawsuit By Black Shopper

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The New York Post reports that actor Robert Brown, who's most known for his starring role opposite Sean Connery in the film “Finding Forrester," has filled a civil suit for an unspecified sum against the luxury retail store and the New York Police Department, citing that he was unlawfully searched by undercover police officers on June 8, 2013. The 29 year old, who is black, was stopped after making a purchase at the Sunglass Hut store located inside Macy's flagship location in New York's Herald Square. According to the Manhattan Supreme Court suit, Brown presented his ID to the cops but “was told that his identification was false and that he could not afford to make such an expensive purchase." The Brooklyn resident says he was then arrested and detained by cops for over an hour before finally being released without any charges. This isn't the first time Macy's has dealt with a racial discrimination lawsuit. In 2005, the company paid New York state $600,000 to settle a complaint that its New York department stores were racially profiling shoppers and unlawful handcuffing them while they were being detained on suspicion of shoplifting.

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