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Shopping While Black

William Parcher

Show me the monkey!
William Parcher
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
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Black mom and daughter call Brooklyn boutique clerks racist after being accused of shoplifting

New York Daily News said:
A black Brooklyn lawyer and her biracial daughter say they were accused of shoplifting by the white clerks of a Williamsburg vintage clothing store, then handcuffed by police blocks from the shop, only to be released when cops realized the pair was innocent.

A mother-daughter day out last Friday ended in Woodhull hospital after Nancy Bedard, an attorney with Brooklyn Legal Services Corp. B, and her college-age daughter decided to try on a couple of dresses in Amarcord Vintage Fashion in the heart of the hipster neighborhood...

..."Basically, there was some furtive behavior on the part of the patrons, an employee asked about an item of clothing and that question alone prompted the patron to pull the race card," Daniel Kron, the attorney for the store owners, said. "At no time was the word 'shoplifting' used except by the patron," he said.

According to Kron, Bedard said, "'Cause I'm black you think I'm stealing?"...
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http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...e-clerk-racism-theft-claims-article-1.3985284
 
William Parcher said:
Black mom and daughter call Brooklyn boutique clerks racist after being accused of shoplifting




http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...e-clerk-racism-theft-claims-article-1.3985284
Click to expand...


What a stupid lie for the store to tell. No one used the word 'shoplifting' but the the patron? So the police handcuffed them for what? "The cops were called to the store for a report of shoplifters, an NYPD spokeswoman said." Oh, right, there are facts that are easily verifiable that prove the store is lying.
 
Yawn...yet another 'it just had to be racist' incident when race does not appear to have been the problem. The sales associate thought there was a fifth item unaccounted for after they left the changing room. She was apparently wrong. The accused reacted irrationally, pulling the 'race card', giving them the double flip off, and leaving. An accused being black and the accuser being white is not automatically an incidence of racism.
 
Thermal said:
Yawn...yet another 'it just had to be racist' incident when race does not appear to have been the problem. The sales associate thought there was a fifth item unaccounted for after they left the changing room. She was apparently wrong. The accused reacted irrationally, pulling the 'race card', giving them the double flip off, and leaving. An accused being black and the accuser being white is not automatically an incidence of racism.
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No, the lawyer has a picture of the couldn't possibly be racist clerk giving them the double deuce.

Why are you taking the store at it's word when it has already demonstrably lied in an especially stupid way?

Perhaps it is just me, but I take special umbrage when someone lies to me badly. Sure, someone lying to you generally shows some level of disrespect, but lazy, stupid lies convey that they don't even feel like they respect you enough to put any real thought or effort into their lies.
 
"Some furtive behavior".

A lot of us know the "furtive movements" excuse for harrassment by police. THis is *supposed* to refer to a Terry stop, where the people caught were very clearly walk back and forth in front of a store, peering into windows, looking around at either end of the store, and so forth.

In practice, it often includes things like "looked at cop too long", "avoided looking at cop", "walked towards cop", "walked away from cop", "stood around near cop", and basically any behavior under the sun. It's a joke term, like "you fit the description", when the description is "black male, blue jeans and shirt, close-shaven hair."
 
tyr_13 said:
No, the lawyer has a picture of the couldn't possibly be racist clerk giving them the double deuce.

Why are you taking the store at it's word when it has already demonstrably lied in an especially stupid way?

Perhaps it is just me, but I take special umbrage when someone lies to me badly. Sure, someone lying to you generally shows some level of disrespect, but lazy, stupid lies convey that they don't even feel like they respect you enough to put any real thought or effort into their lies.
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They seem to have edited the story already. The part about the double flip off is now gone. Mandela Effect?

I take the store to be saying they did not accuse of shoplifting directly. Not until the women tried to leave and police were called, where they certainly said something like that to police.

Put yourself in the associate's shoes. She thinks, wrongly, there is a fifth item unaccounted for. Asking about it, like a salesperson should, she is met with accusations of racism and an attempted storm off. What would you do?

Eta: take a look at the sign the store posted regarding this. They said one of the women immediately berated the clerk's race, class, appearance, and threatened her safety. Pretty bold, if a bunch of lies.
 
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How could a white clerk ever escape the accusation of racial profiling? It seems like guilty until proven innocent and innocence cannot be proven. Once the accusation is made it's permanent and cannot be undone.
 
From the article:
When the dress shop worker warned that a surveillance camera would have captured any theft, Bedard encouraged her to review the video.
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Two questions:
1) why didn't the shop worker first look at the surveillance camera?
2) how stupid does she think the customers are that they'd take the risk of being caught with a theft?
 
ddt said:
From the article:

Two questions:
1) why didn't the shop worker first look at the surveillance camera?
2) how stupid does she think the customers are that they'd take the risk of being caught with a theft?
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1) the women were actively trying to get out of the store, no time to go through pulling up video records.

2) wouldn't that show that the clerk believed a theft had taken place? It would be, as you say, a pointless and meaningless bluff if she knew they actually didn't steal anything
 
William Parcher said:
How could a white clerk ever escape the accusation of racial profiling?
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Probably by not accusing people of a crime and/or calling the police until they can be reasonably certain a crime has been or is being committed.

Since we know that a crime was not committed here and since the store's lawyer has managed only to cite a perception of "furtive behavior" (and *********** lied about there being no accusation of shoplifting - they called the cops!) the options are stupidity and racism, and one doesn't rule out the other.
 
cherry-picking.jpg
 
Thermal said:
1) the women were actively trying to get out of the store, no time to go through pulling up video records.
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The women had bought some clothes, so the store had their credit card data, and could find out who they were. They could always report it later.

Thermal said:
2) wouldn't that show that the clerk believed a theft had taken place? It would be, as you say, a pointless and meaningless bluff if she knew they actually didn't steal anything
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Or that the clerk is stupid. Or that the clerk is racist.
 
ddt said:
The women had bought some clothes, so the store had their credit card data, and could find out who they were. They could always report it later.
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Whoa, whoa, whoa...where do you see that they made a purchase? Cite, please.

Or that the clerk is stupid. Or that the clerk is racist.
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Did you read the notice the store put up? All lies too? You are assuming a lot, no?
 
Babbylonian said:
Probably by not accusing people of a crime and/or calling the police until they can be reasonably certain a crime has been or is being committed.
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But if the white clerk believes that an item has been stolen she has no way of engaging the shopper without the supposition of racial profiling.
 
William Parcher said:
But if the white clerk believes that an item has been stolen she has no way of engaging the shopper without the supposition of racial profiling.
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"Believes?" Is that like having a belief in a higher power or maybe the greatness of America?

The clerk had no idea if anything had been stolen. She was playing a guessing game which, according to the store's lawyer, was based on "furtive behavior." As far as I can tell, the clerk's "belief" wasn't reasonable.
 
I would also note that neither racism nor an accusation of such is a crime in any of the United States, so it's weird that we're supposed to feel bad for the store and its employees because they were called racist after making an unfounded accusation of a crime and calling the police despite having no evidence of said crime...that wasn't committed.
 
Babbylonian said:
"Believes?" Is that like having a belief in a higher power or maybe the greatness of America?

The clerk had no idea if anything had been stolen. She was playing a guessing game which, according to the store's lawyer, was based on "furtive behavior." As far as I can tell, the clerk's "belief" wasn't reasonable.
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How would any store clerk anywhere at any time suspect that an item may have been stolen if they don't believe that an item may have been stolen?
 
More information at Daily Mail...

Daily Mail said:
Shortly after the incident, Bedard's husband, Philip Sturges, who is also an attorney, called for a boycott of the store on Facebook.

'Today a white female employee of Amarcord Vintage Fashion falsely accused my black wife, who is an attorney, of shoplifting, had the police chase her and our teenage daughter down in a cop car and violently handcuff both of them before searching her bag and determining she was innocent,' he wrote on Facebook.

'This was pure RACIAL PROFILING by the Amarcord employee. BOYCOTT!!!!!'...
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Why is it necessary to say that the employee is white? It's as if the husband is now racially profiling her.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ed-white-store-clerk-accused-shoplifting.html
 
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