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October 30, 2013

New York Probes Major Retailers for Racial Profiling 
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New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has launched a probe of the
retailers Macy's and Barneys following complaints from black customers
of racial profiling. Four shoppers say the stores' employees alerted the
police based on the racially biased suspicion they could not afford
their expensive purchases. At a news conference with the National Action
Network in Harlem, Barneys CEO Mark Lee denied the allegations.

Mark Lee: "Our preliminary investigation has concluded that in both of
these instances no one from Barneys New York raised any issue with these
purchases, no one from Barneys brought them to the attention of our
internal security, and no one from Barneys reached out to external
authorities."

New York City tabloids have dubbed the episode "shop-and-frisk," a riff
on the "stop-and-frisk" tactics of the New York City Police Department.

 

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