One of the stars of HBO’s Treme has launched an expansive federal class-action lawsuit against the Macy’s department store for allegedly singling out customers of color for criminal suspicion.
According to New York’s Daily News, Rob Brown charged Macy’s with “policies and practices [that] have left … customers of color feeling victimized, humiliated, traumatized [across the nation]” in the contemptuous, 42-page lawsuit. The filing also cited 14 other cases in which minority customers sued the chain for racial discrimination.
But the actor didn’t stop there, also launching a second federal lawsuit against the New York City Police Department, with similar charges of targeting minorities who are just shopping.
According to the Daily News, the NYPD is being charged with “continuing to enforce, encourage and sanction policies” against customers at expensive retail stores “merely because of the color of their skin.”
Macy’s spokesman Jim Sluzewski refused to comment on the pending suit but was adamant that Macy’s does not tolerate discrimination.
Brown, an African American, had already had a lawsuit against the store and the NYPD in which he alleged that he was handcuffed and held for 45 minutes last June in a “shop and frisk” incident after he tried to purchase a watch for his mom. He dropped that suit Tuesday, pending the new class-action filings.
Read more at the Daily News.