Credit: Wikipedia / David Shankbone
Rev. Al Sharpton will meet with the CEO of Macy’s on Monday afternoon to discuss allegations of racial profiling that have been leveled against the department store.
The meeting comes six days after the civil rights activist met with the CEO of Barneys New York, which is embroiled in a similar“shop-and-frisk”controversy after a series of complaints from shoppers who were falsely accused of credit card fraud.
Robert Brown, an actor on HBO’s show “Treme,” filed a lawsuit against Macy’s late last month, alleging that he was racially profiled when shopping at theHerald Square storein June. In the suit, Brown says he was wrongly accused of fraud when he attempted to buy an expensive gold watch for his mother, handcuffed, and “paraded” around the store because he was black.
Macy’sdenied any involvementin the profiling, saying their employeessimply granted space to the NYPD to question Brown.
Barneys also denied any discriminatory behavior after studentsTrayon Christian, 19, andKayla Phillips, 21, reported being stopped and questioned by NYPD after shopping in their store.
“We’re trying to get everyone on record on what their security policies are and evaluate their procedures,” Sharpton told the Daily News on Saturday. “I think we are going to see the validity of these claims, which will lead to a major policy shift in stores and some real discussions of racial profiling in this city.”
“Somewhere between the store and the police there’s some profiling going on, and somebody’s got to be held accountable,” he said.
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