In today’s day and age, you’d think, or at least hope, that racial profiling would be decreasing, especially in a country with a forward thinking Democratic president and in a place like the Big Apple, which sports enough ethnic and economic diversity to exemplify the American melting pot. Unfortunately, you would be completely and utterly wrong. Following a visit to Barneys, a designer department store centered on Madison Avenue of NYC, a 19-year-old engineering student from Queens was stopped, questioned, and cuffed by plainclothes police officers on suspicion of credit card fraud and larceny after buying a $350 Salvatore Ferragamo belt. Despite showing his state identification card, his school ID, his Chase debit card, and his receipt, he was still detained for over 30 minutes at the NYPD precinct, which would leave many asking why the arrest was still made- the answer is simple, and frustrating: the college student in question, Trayon Christian, is black. Trayon was repeatedly asked by the responding officers, “how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt,” and, “How could you afford a belt like this? Where did you get this money from?” as well as told his identification was probably fake, the card fraudulent, and himself a scammer. He was handcuffed and taken to the 19th Precinct stationhouse where he was detained until Chase was able to satisfactorily verify his account information to police- Mr. Christian has stated the ordeal lasted about 2 hours, while a police spokeswoman, Inspector Kim Royster claims “Mr. Christian was held in police custody for approximately 42 minutes and as soon as we determined that the card was authentic, he was immediately released,” which totals out to a 42 minute stay, give or take. Regardless of the amount of time, this form of racially discriminatory profiling is completely inexcusable. It remains unclear who exactly made the call to follow Trayon, whether an officer just picked him out of the crowd for being black and coming from a swanky department store, or whether another customer or an employee of Barneys made the call, given that while Barneys has released a statement that none of it’s employees were involved with the incident besides the sale itself and it has, “has zero tolerance for any form of discrimination.” On the other side of the coin, Selena Christian, Trayon’s mother expressed frustration, since reputedly, “Barneys said his card was stolen, they said he shouldn’t have that much money in his account. I am shocked. He’s a good kid.” which appears to be true. Trayon has a clean police record with no prior arrests, convictions of any kind, or outstanding warrants. The belt is actually relatively stylish, so he couldn’t even be convicted of a crime of fashion. Mr. Christian has since returned the belt and had his money refunded stating he wants nothing to do with the store or the local precinct at this point, given the racist actions taken. As of this past Tuesday, he and his family have decided to formally sue the city and the luxury store on damages under the grounds of great physical and mental distress, and humiliation. As things currently stand, the City Law department is awaiting court papers, and the NYPD has the case under internal review. As always, we’ll keep you posted- this could have been a friend, a neighbor, a co-worker or classmate. It could have been one of your children, it could be one of our children. This type of profiling and treatment is never okay, or justified. We all bleed red, we are all human, how much melanin is in your skin doesn’t matter.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 15:16:59 +0000
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