Behind the Scenes: Black and Shopping in America
| More news stories on Racial Profiling |
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Soledad O’Brien, CNN, July 23, 2008
{snip}
Not long ago, Wells sent me a note and forwarded a letter she had just mailed to Glenn Murphy, chairman and CEO of Gap Inc. The letter detailed what happened when Wells and two girlfriends decided to ditch the gym during an office lunch break and do some “power-shopping” instead. The three young women, all in their 20s and all black, ended up detained for shoplifting.
“We were dressed professionally,” Wells told me. “It was casual Friday. We had on dresses and casual office wear. We were racially profiled. It was as simple as that.”
Wells says she and her friends were detained by six Gwinnett County, Georgia, police officers for “about an hour and a half” at the entrance of an Old Navy store, owned by Gap. Their crime, as Wells sees it, was being black in America.
In her letter to Murphy, Wells describes enduring “disdainful stares from the mothers and grandmothers and children entering the store.” Police responded to a call from mall security about a gang of shoplifters in the store. They found no stolen merchandise on Wells or her friends. No one—not the police, not the store managers—bothered to apologize.
{snip}
Sad to say, but it’s a common refrain from black people in this country. All of us know someone who has, or have ourselves, been stopped for no apparent reason while driving or been searched for fitting a description.
It happened to my brother Orestes. A Harvard medical student at the time, he was visiting a friend in Brooklyn, New York, when he was stopped and searched by officers late one night. He “fit the profile” of a robbery suspect. They dumped his belongings in the street and made him lie face-down. What infuriated him was that no apology ever followed when it became clear the cops got it wrong. It seemed no one felt that one was owed. My brother was seething when he told me the story. It happens all the time.
{snip}
So many parents told me of sitting down with their sons starting at 12 years old to tell them what to do if pulled over by the police so as not to get shot. I don’t imagine many white parents even think such a conversation is necessary with their teenage sons.
We’ve spent the past 18 months trying to accurately tell the story of black people in this country, a story rarely told with the depth and fullness it requires. Black people are seen frequently as rappers and “ballers” and sometimes exceptional, like Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. But coverage of the vast black middle class is nearly nonexistent. Watch what blacks have to say about the documentary »
{snip}
Black and white people need to talk about our shared history—policies that have held some people back, opportunities that some have not sought. My sense is the time is right for this dialogue on race. With a black man running for president Americans are talking about race every day.
Leah Wells tells me she is “coming to an understanding” with Gap. When I contacted Gap myself, a spokesperson told me that an internal investigation led to the firing of a manager. Later she e-mailed this statement: “We realize it’s probably too late. We regret that we did not apologize for what these ladies experienced at our store, and this goes against everything we stand for as a company.”
Wells has decided to not only get mad but get active, writing and talking about what happened to her and her friends on a day they just set out to do some shopping.
{snip}
(Posted on July 24, 2008)
Comments
They’re lying. There’s a process in every state in the country to suppress all evidence (and sometimes inculpatory statements) obtained by law enforcement as the result of a traffic stop that is not based on probable cause. It is a called a motion to suppress. Every lawyer knows this, and every lawyer reviews his and her criminal cases for lack of probable cause. The people who claim that they were stopped and subsequently searched “for no reason” are invariably lying or omitting critical details.
Posted by at 7:58 PM on July 24
“Sad to say, but it’s a common refrain from black people in this country. All of us know someone who has, or have ourselves, been stopped for no apparent reason while driving or been searched for fitting a description.”
Any white who deals with blacks or Hispanics on a regular basis, either as customers or co-workers, knows that he can unfairly be branded a racist with disastrous consequences at any time. When I worked in a library in a black neighborhood, I once informed two black women browsing the music collection that it was twenty minutes after closing time. I had been waiting for them to leave so I could close up and go home. They next day they went to the administration office to accuse me of racism. I was written up and denied my yearly raise because of the incident.
Posted by Dwayne O. at 8:34 PM on July 24
I would be willing to bet a good deal of them were acting suspicously, or contemplating shoplifting. But let’s just say they weren’t contemplating shoplifting, shopkeepers have good reason to keep an eye on them with considering how often blacks do take part in shoplifting. But they will forever play the victim. Even Oprah was guilty of this. She was in Paris, and walked up to a boutique door at closing time, and wanted in, because they refused her, she complained they were being racist, because another lady white lady was still in the shop. They had already been held up by the one woman, and didn’t want to be further held up and delayed by Oprah. Oprah didn’t want equal treatment, she wanted special treatment. She even tried the Do you know who I am line, and was shocked when the woman shook her head yes, but still refused her.
Posted by at 9:02 PM on July 24
They have only themselves or other blacks to blame, for shoplifting in the first place.
But they’ve also poisoned the well for white folks. I’ve never stolen nor been accused of stealing, but I can feel myself being watched closely whenever I go into a shop. It’s a nasty, uncomfortable feeling, & I can’t help but wonder if it contributes to the boom in on-line shopping. Just to sit & study a product on the computer & know that no one is watching you, to make sure you’re not stealing — that’s nice. Am I the only one who’s noticed that?
Posted by JokingButNot at 9:02 PM on July 24
This is clearly a lie. Several years ago I worked at a major retail sote. There were clear rules and laws about detaining someone for shoplifting. The law clearly says that we had to actually catch the person on camera stealing an item or they couldn’t be prosecuted. Obviously if the women didn’t have stolen merchandise on them, there couldn’t have been any video footage of them stealing. Without that footage the store couldn’t have prosecuted them, so anything they found on them wouldn’t have mattered, so what would have been the point of detaining them? If these women were detained, it was for other reasons. They’re just looking to cash in.
Posted by at 9:07 PM on July 24
“I was written up and denied my yearly raise because of the incident.”
But what exactly WAS the accusation???
Posted by at 9:24 PM on July 24
Just more excuses for blacks to feel sorry for themselves. Notice there’s no description of precisely what happened involving these three black women which caused the manager to call the police. That makes me a little suspicious — but of course it makes so much better a story by the news media’s standards when it reads, “virtuous, hard-working black women unjustly detained by hateful, racist police” than “black women’s suspicious behavior in mall leads to nasty incident with police.” I’m a writer by profession and I know: It’s all in how it’s worded, what is told — and what is left out.
Posted by Wayne Engle at 9:31 PM on July 24
Another story showcasing how blacks love to wallow in victimhood.
I’ve worked retail quite a bit in my day, and the truth of the matter is that blacks do steal—a lot. Of course not all of them. And they are masters of the con game too. Trying to get refunds for things not purchased at the store (we didn’t carry the item), trying to con other customers out of money with a sob story, you name it. If you don’t fall for the con, you’re a racist.
It just ain’t worth all the aggravation. Is it any wonder so few businesses want to be in a black neighborhood?
Posted by kitty at 9:35 PM on July 24
“Sad to say, but it’s a common refrain from black people in this country. All of us know someone who has, or have ourselves, been stopped for no apparent reason while driving or been searched for fitting a description.”
Yes, and us whites all know someone who has, or have ourselves, been a victim of a black criminal.
“So many parents told me of sitting down with their sons starting at 12 years old to tell them what to do if pulled over by the police so as not to get shot. I don’t imagine many white parents even think such a conversation is necessary with their teenage sons.”
No, us white parents don’t have to explain that to our sons. Our sons instinctually know enough to respect the laws and those that enforce them. Perhaps black parents should sit their sons down and tell them to be honest law-abiding citizens and not expect special treatment. That would most likely be a first for blacks!
Posted by at 9:39 PM on July 24
I was accused of “acting in a racist manner,” and was told that I “obviously didn’t like black people.” No specific facts were cited. I was hauled into the administrator’s office and had to listen to these two women snarl at me for half an hour.
Posted by Dwayne O. at 10:01 PM on July 24
My wife has worked retail all her life. Everyone of her stories of shoplifting, even dumb tricks like pulling the tags off items and asking - demanding a refund with no sales slip. Some seem to know when defective or damaged items were put in a collection area. They would lift items from there, walk into the store and demand refunds. Refusals were met with accusations of racism everytime. The most infamous of all was when a female clothing store manager ejected a black woman and her gaggle of teenaged children for attempting shoplifting. They waited for her to leave the shop and then beat her in broad daylight in front of the store. All the kids with her took part. I wish I had been there with my CPL.
Posted by Whiteplight at 10:02 PM on July 24
……..” They had already been held up by the one woman, and didn’t want to be further held up and delayed by Oprah. Oprah didn’t want equal treatment, she wanted special treatment. She even tried the Do you know who I am line, and was shocked when the woman shook her head yes, but still refused her.”
Posted by at 9:02 PM on July 24
Yes, that was our experience living in Europe. Europeans want to close on the moment the clock strikes the hour. They are jealous of their free time and want no further annoyances after that quit time moment.
Posted by Whiteplight at 10:08 PM on July 24
Nobody condones harassment of the innocent, but merchants aren’t stupid and know that a disportionate amount of thievery is committed by blacks. Unfortunately, innocent people are sometimes treated as suspects. I am rather skeptical of claims that officers do not apologize for detaining innocent persons.
Posted by at 10:18 PM on July 24
In the name of fairness I’d like to see CNN run a series of being White in America and have white’s tell when they’ve been abused, harassed, raped, assaulted, etc. by blacks for no other reason except they’re white.
Posted by bouttyme at 10:20 PM on July 24
Do I have this right? Blacks steal, a lot, and they are angry about it. And whites, who steal much less, and who are often the victims (black criminals choose a white victim 54% of the time, white criminals choose a black victim 3% of the time), are supposed to feel guilty about every aspect of this?
I’m left to wonder if CNN, the newsource here, owns stock in the prison construction industry, but then I remember that most crime committed by blacks is never prosecuted because the criminals get away.
Posted by I'm not a racist. . . at 10:38 PM on July 24
When I was a college student, I was constantly followed by store clerks whenever I was buying jeans or shoes. I was once asked by the same clerk at a K.G. Men’ Store “Can I help you?” three times in five minutes, answering “No” twice before I replied, “No; I’ve decided to buy jeans at Starr’s instead, since they probably don’t have creeps stalking customers there. Can I borrow a phone book to make sure they haven’t moved?”
At 42, I now have the opposite problem; I am no longer consideed a likely shoplifter, but store clerks seem unable to see or hear me when I ask for help. I have hated shopping for over 20 years, and anticipate no change in this respect; only my reasons have changed.
Another of my pet peeves is being called a “guest” at a store. If you annoy a guest until he leaves your home, you are not out any money. If you annoy a customer until he leaves your business, you are. I am not a guest. I am a customer.
It’s not “racism” when merchants treat everyone poorly. It’s also not racism when customers with chips on their shoulders give them the excuse.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 10:40 PM on July 24
I—like others on this site, I suspect—went to the original article on the CNN site, and searched in vain for a link to respond to “journalist” Soledad O’Brien, or however one spells her unattractive name. As a last resort, I went to the comments section, and here’s what I got for my efforts:
“This story is no longer available for comments.” —why am I not surprised?
To the point: her “story” stinks, big time. How likely is it that a business in a mall in Gwinnett County, Georgia—specifically about a mile from my office—would invite the wrath of the “civil rights” crowd and Big Media? Does that not seem incredibly, ridiculously non-intuitive—as in *dumb*?
The CNN story quotes a Gap executive saying that a manager was fired over this—uh, that former manager would be a quotable source with no conflict of interest in being interviewed, since he/she got *canned* for, *presumably*, protecting the interests of his/her employer.
So where is Soledad’s interview with that important actor in this drama?
I smell a big fat fraud.
Posted by Oops, the brainwashing wore off... at 11:15 PM on July 24
This is such old news. Blacks want to commit crimes with impunity, and they all know crying, ‘racism’, is the way to do that.
Posted by Flamethrower at 11:20 PM on July 24
No PC indoctrinated employee is going to stop a black person for no reason, if for any other reason, just to avoid the headache of having to deal with them. I saw a group of blacks stealing a bunch of stuff at 7/11 and told one of the employees and manager, and their response was,”it’s not worth it”. These girls were probably trying to steal stuff, and when they realized they were busted, they put it back.
Posted by pinchegabacho at 12:10 AM on July 25
CNN once again proves that “black media privilege” is the greatest racial injustice alive today.
Posted by Undomesticated at 12:23 AM on July 25
But they’ve also poisoned the well for white folks. I’ve never stolen nor been accused of stealing, but I can feel myself being watched closely whenever I go into a shop. It’s a nasty, uncomfortable feeling, & I can’t help but wonder if it contributes to the boom in on-line shopping. Just to sit & study a product on the computer & know that no one is watching you, to make sure you’re not stealing — that’s nice. Am I the only one who’s noticed that?
Posted by JokingButNot at 9:02 PM on July 24
I have to agree with the above poster. I have been “watched” quite obviously a few times and it wasn’t in just one grocery store. It was in a couple of locations of the same store. I have never stolen anything in my life and don’t look like it either. I do think they have to hassle so many white people and do hassle people who might not look like they would do anything about it.
The last incident happened with a female cop standing in the front of the store. So after checking out I approached the cop like i was just a concerned citizen and told her there was a strange acting guy following me and who kept crossing in front of me many times. I suggested he was on something and that he wasn’t hitting on me. And I also told her that he didn’t look like he would be into women at all. She said he had left the store. Which of course was a lie. And so I told her to tell him the next time she saw him that he didn’t look like he would be into women. She smiled at me and said she’d do that.
Funny, I haven’t felt tailed ever since.
Posted by Never Been So White at 12:29 AM on July 25
Last fall I stopped at a gas station convenience store in a certain mid-sized southern city, and while looking for a cold drink, noticed two black women wearing extremely baggy pants and puffy winter jackets (even though the day was quite warm), gathered around the frozen food section as though to obstruct the view. Edging in a bit closer, I noticed they were taking boxes upon boxes worth of frozen pizzas, Hot Pockets, etc and quickly stuffing them into the inside of their pants or jackets.
It was a fairly graphic illustration of one reason — apart from the violent crime — that supermarkets refuse to open in heavily black neighborhoods, and why such places that do exist are constantly on watch for black customers This sort of thing must go on every day.
Posted by at 6:02 AM on July 25
CNN, you ought to be ashamed for further fanning the flames of black resentment. Let’s see some statistics on convictions for shopplifting by race, and then let’s have this discussion. If blacks believe they are unfairly scrutinized, then they ought to direct their anger toward other blacks whose willful acts of bad citizenry or bad behavior have created this image for them. But then, they would have to have average IQs and powers of rational thinking to reach these conclusions, which clearly they do not.
Posted by Thia at 6:43 AM on July 25
What is left out is the fact that blacks, while constituting only 12% of the population, commit many times that percentage of crime in America. Thus it is entirely rational, and would be irrational, not to have a heightened sense of suspicion when a group of blacks is in one’s store or driving down the road. The fact that a black male in his early twenties is stopped by police because he fits the profile of a crime suspect has nothing to do with his being a medical student at Harvard (where he is likely to be an affirmative action beneficiary). The facts about black crime make all of these self serving and incomplete stories quite understandable. Try substituting “green” for race and see how the logic works itself out. The only thing that is racist about America is the fact that one subgroup of its people are so highly prone to crime.
Posted by at 6:56 AM on July 25
Shopkeepers and storeowners aren’t stupid. They KNOW who is causing the “shrinkage”. Interestingly I have found that Oriental and Arab storekeepers are the most leery and suspicous of blacks. They make no apology for it either. I have had numerous south Asian taxi-drivers volunteer the information to me that they point-blank REFUSE to pick up black males. Wariness of blacks is universal and entirerly rational. Blacks have only themselves to blame for their bad name.
Posted by at 7:52 AM on July 25
It’s called Bayesian inference. And it is completely logical to apply it to blacks.
Posted by at 7:54 AM on July 25
I know many whites who have been stopped and even searched for no apparrent reason.
It is past time that whites start demanding action to stop anit-white racism when it is real and demanding the firing of pc and minority officials who are the problem.
I have and by refusing to back down have gotten the anti-white discrimination reversed. Whites can win discrimination cases and should challenge every instant where the white is discriminated against for affirmative action. It has been ruled by courts that affirmative action IS new discrimination if it is used against anyone who did not commit the discrimination it is supposed to remedy it is only a short step from this to the end of affirmative action if some bright lawyer finds the right case.
We have a law applied to all or we have tyranny.
Posted by Oldman at 8:30 AM on July 25
IF they did nothing wrong then they should direct their anger at the Blacks who have created the atmosphere of suspicion because of their sociopathic behavior.
I have a dear friend who is Puerto Rican always refers to badly behaved Hispanics as “The ones who give the rest of us a bad name.”
Posted by at 9:26 AM on July 25
Here’s something for all you white guys who think you’re all lovey-dovey with the cops. Ride a motorcycle in Missoula, Montana. You will be pulled over for nothing, you will be hassled. It won’t matter how you are dressed or what type of motorcycle. The cops are not your friends no matter what color you are. Black’s perception of justice in the US is far more accurate than white’s. Go to YouTube and look up “police brutality”, look up “taser” and see how many police victims are white. We are all in this together against a totalitarian police state. We are all victims.
Posted by Earl Jensen at 10:17 AM on July 25
“Sad to say, but it’s a common refrain from black people in this country. All of us know someone who has, or have ourselves, been stopped for no apparent reason while driving or been searched for fitting a description.”
Even if that is true so what? All of “us” know someone or have ourselves been accosted by blacks.
Posted by at 11:29 AM on July 25
Earl Jensen: Perhaps you don’t get “pulled over for nothing.” Perhaps it’s because you drive a motorcycle. Members of biker groups, such as Hells Angels or others, are considered by law enforcement to be criminals eo ipso. Now, I don’t know if you are a member of a biker group, nor do I know whether or not any biker groups are prevalent in Missoula, Montana. But I do know that I have never been “pulled over for nothing.” Every time I’ve been pulled over, it’s because I have violated a traffic law. I know for a fact that, for instance, a soccer mom driving around in a minivan is not going to be “pulled over for nothing.” There’s always a reason for everything.
Posted by at 11:35 AM on July 25
That’s funny, I’m white and I can remember three times I was accused of shoplifting. The first was as a child, when a store clerk asked me to open my lunchbox (I had entered the store on my way home from school). The second time was when I was delivering coupon books to area businesses, and security surrounded me and wanted to see what was in my shopping bag (coupon books). The other time was when I was looking at halloween costumes and a clerk sneeringly accused me of shoplifting for no reason. (In that episode, the clerk was black). Yet, there will be no media articles written on whites who are accused of shoplifting—I guess it only happens to blacks. Of course it’s the MSM that are most to blame for bolstering every black paranoia over the past 40 years.
Posted by Tim in Indiana at 11:40 AM on July 25
One more thing: I went to the original article to post my comment and find it interesting that it is already closed to comments, just one day after it originally appeared.
Posted by Tim in Indiana at 11:44 AM on July 25
Quite often the black people who object to receiving “disdainful” looks, or to being treated with suspicion, or stopped by the police, as in this case, as well as the whites who side with these blacks and feel that something racist or unfair is happening, are omitting some pertinent facxts.
First, the fact that quite often (though certainly not always) the blacks who experience these incidents of “racism” are behaving in a manner that is itself so anti-social, disdainful and disrespectful of those around them, that it is but manifest hypocrisy for them to turn around and accuse others of treating them with the same disdain and suspicion. In my area, young black males routinely walk about the public streets with their pants indecently hanging off their bodies, underwear showing, yelling out foul profanities to nobody in particular as they walk down the middle of the street blocking all traffic, (or, in some cases, walking down the street yelling out that they want to kill white people, as occurred in my Oakland neighborhood recently) and then they cry “foul” or “racist” when they’re stopped by the police, saying “I din do NUTHIN”. SOrry, but police have every right to stop and question people who are behaving in an aggressive, antisocial manner.
Second, the fact that black Americans commit an enormously disproportionate amount of crime relative to the population at large, something the US Dept of Justice statistics will show, year in and year out. It is right and it is just for not only all vendors and merchants, but all citizens generally, to be more wary of people who fit the description of a vast majority of those perpetrating particular crimes upon their streets or in those areas.
Just because people are black, doesn’t mean any “unfairness” that they experience, is happening BECAUSE they are black: it may be happening because they are nasty, anti-social, foul and hostile people whom no one really wants anything to do with and whom everyone will call police on, any chance they get.
Posted by WhiteIsAColor at 11:46 AM on July 25
Never is there any mention of the tremendous disproportional amount of robberies committed by this particular race.
2005: 56% of all arrests for robberies were black
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/tables/08s0318.pdf
I don’t care what year you go back to in the Statistical Abstracts (I know, because I‘ve checked), you will find the black race, year after year after year, is being arrested for approx. 60% of all robberies. Blacks represent about 12 to 13% of total U.S. population. Store owners have a damn good *statistical* reason to profile blacks.
Also, this could very well have been a set-up attempt for a lawsuit. Blacks know their profiled. They go the store and deliberately act suspicious (e.g. pretend to stuff something in their purse). When they get stopped, they cry racism. “Look!” they say, “We got notin’ at all. You all racist.” Then comes the multi-million lawsuit. These -set-up lawsuits do work!
Just read how blacks cash in here.
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/dec/29/local/me-firefighter29
Posted by at 12:20 PM on July 25
My Father taught me how to conduct myself in public and how to respond to any police officer. He assumed I knew what stop meant, or halt, or get down, general directions from a “cop.”
Blacks and white trash don’t even know what basic words mean.
I still refer to Officers with yes sir or no sir.
Trashy people have no civilized manners or desire to be civilized.
Posted by jdavis at 12:54 PM on July 25
Let’s view the “stopped on suspicion” angle sensibly. That Blacks commit more crime, on a per capita percentage basis, is inarguable. So why wouldn’t police officers be suspicious of Blacks. The officers, after all, simply doing the job they’re paid to do.
Shoplifting by Blacks? How many incidents on this website alone, have been spotlighted by readers or stories (like in the MLK Holiday after-parade shoplifting spree by Black youths).
Sure, Blacks have a legitimate gripe. But Whites have equally legitimate CAUSE to suspect Blacks of criminal acts, criminal behavior. Legitimate cause that can often be triggered by specific circumstances… expensive cars or clothing. By a store’s unreasonably high pilferage (shoplifting) loss record. Even by Blacks being in an area or establishment not generally frequented by Blacks in general.
Time to WAKE UP, BLACK AMERICA! Your constant crying and whining is starting to wear too thin. You want to be accepted as being no different than Whites, FORCE your kids to ACT LIKE WHITES! To drop the baggy pants, loose clothing (good to hide stolen loot in) dress style. By being in school during school hours, and most of all, ACTUALLY LEARNING! By knocking sense into your kids, that gangsta culture is definitely NOT COOL! Nor anti-White, anti-police [c]rap music lyrics. You Blacks have been collectively griping and bitching long enough about Whites automatically blaming or suspecting you of crimes. But yet you can’t or won’t admit you’ve given us Whites literally TONS OF REASON to do just that! Given just how many criminal acts BY BLACKS happen daily all over our U.S. of A.
Posted by Fed Up at 1:09 PM on July 25
I find it extremely odd that whites would want a black man to be president of a highly advanced country. These whites are willing to overlook that blacks cannot even run Africa on any intelligent level when left on their own abilities. As shown, blacks would rather suffer than live under the leadership of more intelligent races. The “advancement” of blacks in this country are not solely on their own but rather at the expense of others. It is long over due for selective breeding and letting blacks compete on their own merits with everyone else. Inappropriate compassion does not help anyone nor does “white guilt”. Presently, the whites are held hostage by fantasies of their own making over white/black race relationships. The blacks are more than happy to take advantage of these fantasies as shown by Obama, et al. Future generations will have to clean up this mess of letting genes produce at their present rate. Hopefully, the white race is up to the task otherwise the yellow race will have to step in. The white and yellow races are the only more intelligent races left on this planet since the red man is now a minor voice.
Posted by at 1:24 PM on July 25
I’ll bet they did something other than being black to set off an alarm with the store manager. In Guinnett Country there will have been hundreds if not thousands of blacks going into the mall every day. I doubt if one in a thousand blacks is ever stopped and questioned but sooner or later a mistake will be made.
Years ago a friend of mine, a white guy, was stopped in a black neighborhood at 3 AM, the cop told him the only reason a white guy would be in that neighborhood at that time of night was to buy drugs. This guy didn’t have any drugs in his possession, but guess what, the police were right he went there to by Crack but his supplier wasn’t at home.
I even ask a black state trooper once what he thought of racial profiling and he said that if it didn’t work they would stop doing it. We had drank quite a few beers and this conversation was off the record. Even black law enforement officers know where to find the criminals.
Posted by Daniel at 2:36 PM on July 25
Funny how they never interview white managers or store owners and ask them about their experiences with shoplifters.
I remember about 15 years ago some news station in the Twin Cities did an undercover report about security at Carson Peirre Scott at the Brookdale mall watching black customers specifically for shop lifting. They had the ‘gotcha’ hidden camera footage of the security managing stating they were watching them ‘because they were black.’ The media patted themselves on the back for months for exposing this racism and injustice.
Well, guess what? The Brookdale mall is now basically a three-quarters empty problem commercial property that nobody wants. It used to be a thriving typical white mall. The only people it attracts now are Ghetto loiterers from north Minneapolis. Carson Peirre Scott eventually turned into Mervyn’s but has been gone for years. I think the only thing left there is a small Macy’s and a Barnes & Noble. Good work Twin Cities media!! You gave free reign to black shoplifters and not surprisingly destroyed a large mall.
My brother also worked at a convenience store for several years. All obersvations indicate a sizable portion of the black community are simply born thieves.
Posted by Civilized Neighbor at 2:39 PM on July 25
Then there’s that White college student in Tallahasse who had a sandwich bag of Marijuana. In order to avoid jail time the police made her go on a sting pretending that she wanted to buy a gun from these two Blacks whom they had been watching. The two police who were following her to the “meet” lost her and they found her two days later shot to death in her car. They arrested the two.
The cops may as well have just shot the poor kid themselves. The kid never told her parents out of fear. Anther White girl thrown to the wolves over a lousy small bag of pot.
Posted by at 2:41 PM on July 25
…To the point: her “story” stinks, big time. How likely is it that a business in a mall in Gwinnett County, Georgia—specifically about a mile from my office—would invite the wrath of the “civil rights” crowd and Big Media? Does that not seem incredibly, ridiculously non-intuitive—as in *dumb*?
Especially with Morris Dees’ Southern Poverty-Pimp Law Center and the Martin Luther King Free at Last Racism Museum or whatever it’s called breathing down their necks from practically rock-throwing distance away up in Et-lanna?
Posted by at 2:53 PM on July 25
Lately I have noticed our local newspaper bemoaning the fate of the written media. Even the fabled NYT is suffering a huge loss of advertising revenue. Well what do they expect when they have spent the last 40 years spouting the kind of liberal tripe thats turned society into a PC zoo, especially concerning race relations. Now that folks have an alternative via the internet they don’t have to have their heads pumped full of propaganda on a daily basis. After the Obama phenoma explodes people are going to figure out the same thing about TV.
Posted by at 2:55 PM on July 25
One more thing: I went to the original article to post my comment and find it interesting that it is already closed to comments, just one day after it originally appeared.
That is evidence that A LOT of regular people got on there like it was AMREN and started pointing out all the holes in Senora O’Brien’s article. These people can’t STAND to be confronted with the truth.
Posted by at 3:04 PM on July 25
Merchants with common sense will focus their attention where the odds of loss are greatest and crime statistics show this is with the black patron. If the blacks who don’t fit the stereotype don’t like this that’s unfortunate but their being offended does not outweigh the financial losses the merchants suffer from black shoplifting. Their anger needs to be directed towards the blacks who justify the stereotype in the first place.
Posted by Robert at 3:26 PM on July 25
My sister and I were at the US-Toronto border and the Canadians picked us out to pull over and search. They dragged EVERYTHING out of our vehicle, pawed through it with their grubby hands, then left it all lying in the dirty parking lot for us to re-load back into the car.
I’m quite sure we were racially profiled and pulled over for “DWW — Driving While White”.
So where’s my CNN story??
Posted by at 3:27 PM on July 25
Okay this is a little off topic, but I am really getting sick of every single person who works in an office calling themselves “professional”. To me, a professional is someone with an education that focused on a specialty. That means that a teacher is a professional, as is a lawyer, doctor, engineer….etc. An office manager, on the other hand, is NOT. I can already tell you that anybody whose job gives them the same lunch break at the same time with everyone else is more than likely NOT a professional.
Here’s a few tips: if you can’t call work and tell them you’re going to be a few minutes late without being written up, then you are not a professional. Can’t negotiate your salary? Not a professional. Spend most of your work day answering phones? Not a professional. And here’s the biggest one: if anyone with an average IQ could be trained to do your job in less than day, then you are most certainly NOT a professional.
End rant.
Posted by at 4:04 PM on July 25
“All of us know someone who has, or have ourselves, been stopped for no apparent reason while driving or been searched for fitting a description.”
Us? US!? Has anyone here seen what Soledad O’Brien looks like? I had no idea she was even mixed unitil about a year ago, and i didnt know she had any black in her.
Her father was 100% Australian white, and her mother was afro cuban, maybe 40% black and 60% white. Yet she has the nerve to call herself black.
If anyone wants a good chuckle, watch the Black In America series they are running on CNN. Its hosted by her.
Nobody thinks you are black, Soledad…
Posted by at 4:29 PM on July 25
“Overall, blacks and Hispanics were no more likely than whites to steal merchandise. However, when race and gender were examined by subcategory, Hispanic females stole the most, shoplifting at more than seven times the rate of white females, he said.”
http://news.ufl.edu/2005/08/10/shoplifters/
Store managers know whom to watch. The problem is the race card that all blacks have. If they should scheme to behave noticeably as if they were shoplifting and get held up for it and empty handed, they can try to sue for racial harassment, profile, discrimination, etc…
But the real pros are the shakedown artists:
Someone should write a book called “The Cost of Black People”.
Posted by Helper at 5:55 PM on July 25
The only time I’ve ever witnessed shoplifting in my life was at the Galleria in Dallas several years back. I think it was Macys where I saw two black women stuffing clothes underneath their own and down into their pants. It was done in plain view of me. I went to one of the registers to tell a sales clerk while they fled and set off the store alarm. I found out store security was on them before I ever opened my mouth. I think stores should start using exploding dye packs on their merchandise triggered by a signal when they exit the store.
Posted by at 6:21 PM on July 25
Just go to any store in a black area, they must have armed guards at the door to prevent the “customers” from walking out with merchandise without paying for it.I’m sure Soledad has never had the pleasure of shopping in a black area, so she only knows what she was taught in her journalism school.
In black areas however, the stores don’t last long. They eventually fail, and the government takes care of this by issuing rent vouchers so the poor victims can go destroy another white neighborhood.
Posted by William Hendershot at 7:13 PM on July 25
I’m left to wonder if CNN, the newsource here, owns stock in the prison construction industry
The media have a vested interest in a chaotic world, and so they tend to do things that will make the world chaotic. The same can be said of government. This largely motivates the war against whites.
Posted by HideouslyWhite at 8:29 PM on July 25
Beginning several years ago a large number of Korean merchants began taking over the stores in my area. They have all had incidents with blacks. They have all been robbed by blacks. One Korean storeowner had a big stick like a ‘Singapore cane’ and he cane-whipped one black thug who tried to hold him up. Koreans have a lot of trouble with black shoplifters. Recall how the Rodney King riots were partly aimed at Koreans because a black shoplifter had recently been killed by a Korean storeowner.
Posted by at 1:02 AM on July 26
I’ve worked retail quite a bit in my day, and the truth of the matter is that blacks do steal—a lot. Of course not all of them. And they are masters of the con game too. Trying to get refunds for things not purchased at the store (we didn’t carry the item), trying to con other customers out of money with a sob story, you name it. If you don’t fall for the con, you’re a racist.
I have a friend who is in higher management with Wal-Mart and she says that many, many blacks are caught shoplifting and if it isn’t real expensive they just let it go because of the possible RACISSSSSSS lawsuits. They are also responsible for returning merchandise NOT purchased or sold at Wal-Mart and again, the items are refunded and no questions asked for fear of the RACISSSSSS lawsuits. She says the criminals seem distressed or disappointed that money was given to them with no complaint,thereby avoiding their intended RACISSSSSS lawsuit.
Posted by Skip at 9:16 AM on July 26
Lets see now…. I am a manager of a store where many black “customers” have tried to shoplift goods in the past. In fact its more the rule than the exception so I begin to develop an opinion that most blacks are thieves. I communicate this to the store security. They agree. Along come this trio of “shoppers” who act like they are shoplifting. They are detained and cry racism, profiling and god knows what else. Just like those lacrosse players in the South charged with rape I believe this gang played a little game.
Little wonder stores pack up and move when the demographic changes.
Posted by Chuck_W at 10:47 AM on July 26
“I’d like to see CNN run a series of being White in America and have white’s tell when they’ve been abused, harassed, raped, assaulted, etc. by blacks for no other reason except they’re white.”
Add ‘stolen from’ onto that list also.
Posted by at 11:46 PM on July 26
Are they talking about blacks shopping or shoplifting, they could really give lessons to the gypsies on thievary….or raping, killing….at that they are pro’s not to be supassed….also. latino’s are not far behind the blacks, and at scams….to them it’s an art!!!
Posted by lydia at 10:29 AM on July 28
No white person has ever accused me of stealing anything. It is always blacks, probably as a cover for their own larcenous tendencies.
Posted by John Wellington at 10:55 AM on July 31