Barneys Agrees to Pay $525,000 in Racial Profiling Inquiry New York Times (08/12/14) Santora, Marc Barneys New York will pay $525,000 to end an investigation led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman into allegations that it engaged in racial profiling of shoplifting and credit card fraud suspects. The investigation was prompted by complaints from two African-Americans who had shopped at a Barneys New York store in Manhattan and were falsely accused of shoplifting. One of the individuals who filed a complaint says he was chased by plainclothes officers after legally buying a $350 belt. The complainant says the officers seemed to doubt that he could afford to purchase the belt and said that the debit card he used to make the purchase must have been fake. The man was eventually handcuffed and taken to a police station, where he was reportedly held for two hours before being released. Schneiderman subsequently looked into these and other claims, and found that a disproportionate number of people who were detained for allegedly shoplifting or engaging in credit card fraud at Barneys New York were either African-American or Hispanic. Barneys New York is pledging to take a number of steps to ensure racial profiling does not occur in the future, including hiring an independent anti-profiling consultant who can help ensure that loss prevention and asset protection efforts do not involve the use of racial profiling.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 06:00:19 +0000
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