FSTDT Forums
Community => Society and History => Topic started by: gyeonghwa on October 25, 2013, 01:25:50 am
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http://nypost.com/2013/10/22/barneys-busted-student-for-being-black-suit/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPFacebook&utm_medium=SocialFlow
A college student from Queens got more than he bargained for when he splurged on a $350 designer belt at Barneys — when a clerk had him cuffed apparently thinking the black teen couldn’t afford the pricey purchase, even though he had paid for it, a new lawsuit alleges.
“His only crime was being a young black man,” his attorney, Michael Palillo, told The Post.
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Trayon Christian, 19, a NYC College of Technology freshman from Corona, went to the Madison Avenue fashion mecca in April to buy the Salvatore Ferragamo belt after saving up his paychecks from a part-time job at the college.
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But as soon as he exited the luxury department store, undercover officers grabbed Christian and asked “how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt,” according to the suit, filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
It turns out he not only could afford, all his credentials were in place. And people still think he stole it.
And before you say it, I think splurging 350 on a belt is stupid too. There are so much better things to do with that money. But that's not the point. The point is while a white person could have wasted 350 on belt he probably wouldn't have been assumed to have fraud the store.
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I assumed that this farce would have ended when they brought him back to the shop and learned that he had in fact bought the belt. But it turned out it was the clerk who called the cops since a black teen must be a criminal if he has money.
Then comes this at the police station:
There, Christian produced his identification, his debit card from Chase and the receipt with his name on it, the suit states.
“In spite of producing such documentation, Christian was told that his identification was false and that he could not afford to make such an expensive purchase.”
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A belt similar to this one was purchased by Trayon Christian at Barneys.
Cops eventually called Chase, which verified that the card belonged to Christian, and they let him go.
I'm no cop (or a clerk) but if you doubt that person X owns the credit/debit card he is using shouldn't you check first before cuffing him. I mean that's what's happened to me on occasion. Maybe that's just because I'm in fact white.
In fact, why didn't the cops check his card immediately? Shouldn't that be pretty high on their list while investagating something like this? "Nah, he looked black so it could only be a stolen card." Is what I assume they would say.
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Irony being that Trayon Christian has a seriously excellent sense of up-to-the-minute style and very good taste in casual wear. He would make a good fashion model for the designers whose stuff he likes to wear. That belt is just way cool looking, too. Pics of him in that linked article show that he has a knack for detail and minimalism that highlights the more expensive items and accessories he wears. He's gonna win this suit, and I bet he's gonna get some serious modeling job offers out of it, too. Either way, he can relax about those student loans now.
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Well its not just him a woman also alleges a similar thing. I guess the only way a black person can have money is if they are drug dealing or scamming
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I'm not surprised it's around Queens.
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How is the belt worth $350? Is it fucking handmade with genuine sasquatch leather? Looking at the pictures, it's a nice belt, but it doesn't look $350 nice. And would it kill him to use the belt to, you know, hold up his pants? He dresses nice and all, but I've never liked the sagging pants look.
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How is the belt worth $350? Is it fucking handmade with genuine sasquatch leather? Looking at the pictures, it's a nice belt, but it doesn't look $350 nice. And would it kill him to use the belt to, you know, hold up his pants? He dresses nice and all, but I've never liked the sagging pants look.
It's gotta be the time investment and a good deal of hand-crafting to qualify for $350...
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Sagging pants are just in style 8)
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How is the belt worth $350? Is it fucking handmade with genuine sasquatch leather? Looking at the pictures, it's a nice belt, but it doesn't look $350 nice. And would it kill him to use the belt to, you know, hold up his pants? He dresses nice and all, but I've never liked the sagging pants look.
It's gotta be the time investment and a good deal of hand-crafting to qualify for $350...
Also it's NYC. Everything is overpriced. Everything.
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How is the belt worth $350? Is it fucking handmade with genuine sasquatch leather? Looking at the pictures, it's a nice belt, but it doesn't look $350 nice. And would it kill him to use the belt to, you know, hold up his pants? He dresses nice and all, but I've never liked the sagging pants look.
It's gotta be the time investment and a good deal of hand-crafting to qualify for $350...
Also it's NYC. Everything is overpriced. Everything.
Also true.
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Guy called Trayvon Martin gets shot for being black. Guy called Trayon Christian gets arrested for being black. Am I sensing a pattern here?
Conspirisu!
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Yes you are. Blacks in America are subject to all kids of racism.
Ironbite-because we as a society haven't gotten out of the 1950s mentality yet.
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“how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt,”
They might have well told him he was being arrested for being a black man in public.
What fucked up world do we live in where a man is arrested not for stealing something, but for buying something? And with his own money?
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A post-rascism world that's what.
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The fact that they considered it suspicious of him to have that much money may be profiling, it does seem like it but if they can prove that they are equally suspicious over any young person paying that much could be possible. (Though I doubt it.) The fact that they didn't bother to check the facts and relied on suspicion is just plain wrong and racist. They could have checked his ID, his criminal record, called his bank, anything. They just locked him up because they were so certain that their prejudices were right that they didn't even consider for a moment that the kid might be innocent.
And that certainly is proof of profiling and racism.
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The fact that they considered it suspicious of him to have that much money may be profiling, it does seem like it but if they can prove that they are equally suspicious over any young person paying that much could be possible. (Though I doubt it.) The fact that they didn't bother to check the facts and relied on suspicion is just plain wrong and racist. They could have checked his ID, his criminal record, called his bank, anything. They just locked him up because they were so certain that their prejudices were right that they didn't even consider for a moment that the kid might be innocent.
And that certainly is proof of profiling and racism.
Except in the farking article, they DID mention that he produced his ID, his reciept and his bank card, and they summarily declared it to be fake/not valid information, and arrested him anyway.
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That is the dumbest thing since even if forged there would be no difference period
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I know this is a bump but...http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/black-man-sues-macy-cuffed-making-legit-purchase-article-1.1496735
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How is the belt worth $350? Is it fucking handmade with genuine sasquatch leather? Looking at the pictures, it's a nice belt, but it doesn't look $350 nice. And would it kill him to use the belt to, you know, hold up his pants? He dresses nice and all, but I've never liked the sagging pants look.
It's gotta be the time investment and a good deal of hand-crafting to qualify for $350...
Also it's NYC. Everything is overpriced. Everything.
Only if you don't know where to look. Food, for instance, is almost bafflingly cheap if you pick the right spots.
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Is it me or is there an upswing of backwards-ness? You have this, you have the mess with Trayvon Martin, you have Steubenville & Maryville, you have MRAs, etc. Geeze, when I was growing up in the 80's, these types were usually at the fringes. I'm seeing stuff that belongs in a pre-Civil Rights/Women's Movement era! I hope it ends soon. Hopefully the Tealiban's days are numbered. This is nuts!
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Is it me or is there an upswing of backwards-ness? You have this, you have the mess with Trayvon Martin, you have Steubenville & Maryville, you have MRAs, etc. Geeze, when I was growing up in the 80's, these types were usually at the fringes. I'm seeing stuff that belongs in a pre-Civil Rights/Women's Movement era! I hope it ends soon. Hopefully the Tealiban's days are numbered. This is nuts!
I've definitely noticed that too, and I've seen it happening for years and years. I'd say it's the fact that conservatives are getting desperate and openly bigoted as the rest of society becomes more liberal and more left-leaning laws are passed, and that beliefs are polarising due to the global/national situation.
And the last feminist/civil rights movements and the sexual revolution are fairly far back in most peoples' memories.
Maybe it's hard for some to remember why we needed those revolutions when they don't see people being hanged from trees in the streets. Openly hanged, anyway.
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It's either an upswing of stupidity, or people are just noticing it/making a big deal out of it more.
I remember Mom telling me that when girls got pregnant when she went to school, they would go to "live with an aunt" for awhile (about 9 months.......) give birth, give the kid up for adoption, and go back to school. They just... wouldn't talk about it at all.
Same thing with kids getting kidnapped. It happened with alarming frequency, but no one talked about it, because it was "disrespectful" or some other bullshit. I got the impression that they were just trying to pretend that everything was hunky dory.
Nowadays, people talk about it. It's getting in the news. People are making big deals out of it for good or ill. If anything, the fact that we are hearing about this more may not be a bad thing. A bad thing would be if this stuff goes on all the time and never gets talked about. A good thing is when it becomes controversy and people talk about it, because it means that our society, as a whole, is improving.
...What's not an improvement is that gossip and rumormongering are also more common and more damaging now, thanks to the power of the internet.
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It's because we aren't just focused locally like we used to be. We are connected to the news globally thanks to the technology we have today.
Plus, once you have 'opened your eyes' it's hard to not see bad things everywhere.
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That much is also true.