JohnButts@JBMedia - Reports:
On Monday, retail executives and civil rights leaders met to hash out a black shopper's "bill of rights," the New York Daily News reports.
The bill of rights, created after a rash of racial profiling incidents in which black shoppers claimed that they were arrested, or accosted or both after making purchases from the retail store, was created to aid shoppers in knowing the law.
The Rev. Al Sharpton told the Daily News that the lists, which are to be posted on retailers' websites and inside the store this week, will hopefully prevent the harassment of black customers whose only crime was purchasing an expensive item.
"The meeting was positive but it's nowhere near where we hope to end up. At least now we're having an acknowledgment that there's a problem. So it is a step in the right direction but we're not home yet," the civil rights leader said.
According to the NY Daily News, stores have agreed to post a bill of rights informing customers that profiling and unreasonable searches are prohibited. The list also states that if a store employee is caught profiling a customer, they will be a disciplined or fired, the NY Daily News reports.
Sharpton told the NY Daily News that the civil rights group was hoping to sit-down with incoming Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, who takes over for current police commish, Raymond Kelly in January.
"We will have to sit in the room with him and the retailers and we hope to do that in the next few days, I'm not talking about weeks. ... We want to have an agreement with him coming in," Sharpton said.
The Daily News first reported the racial profiling scandal after 19-year-old Trayon Christian, said that he was arrested and detained after purchasing a $350 Salvatore Ferragamo belt from Barneys. Shortly after Christian's claim, Kayla Phillips, 21, alleged that police too harassed her after purchasing a $2,500 orange suede Céline bag from Barneys.
But Barneys wasn't the only retail store to feel the heat, Macy's would be accused of racial profiling as two more black shoppers stepped forward with similar claims.
Actor Rob Brown, 29, and Art Palmer, 56, a personal trainer, both said cops stopped them after shopping at the department store.
Both department stores deny that denied racial profiling the customers and blamed an aggressive New York Police Department for the shoppers being stopped. It is this reason that Sharpton believes meeting with the NYPD is paramount.
"The meeting has to be about where does NYPD take charge and where do stores take charge and who's doing the profiling? And where are the boundaries? Who decides who's a suspect?" he told the Daily News
No comments:
Post a Comment