black woman handcuffed for no reason

[Demovictory9]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-news-victorias-secret-bra-racially-profiled-20180608-story.html

Shopper goes to Victoria's Secret to get sensor removed from bra, and gets handcuffed

https://www.ajc.com/news/national/tennessee-woman-says-she-was-racially-profiled-victoria-secret/9IOInGzKFd8dwoKpLbR74O/

Jovita Jones said an employee at Victoria’s Secret in Collierville forgot to remove the censor on a bra she purchased recently at the store. On Monday, she took the bra back to have the censor removed.

"I told her she could keep the bag up there. I was going to go look around the store," Jones said.

As she made her way to the dressing room with new items to purchase, Jones spotted a police officer walking toward her.

"He could have asked, ‘Ma'am, can I search your bag?’ He didn't do any of that. He just came in and (slapped) handcuffs on me. He made up in his mind I was guilty," Jones said.

An employee had called police on Jones, who has no criminal record. The store tried to make things right by offering Jones a $100 gift card, but she was not satisfied.

-------------------------

https://www.fox13memphis.com/top-stories/black-woman-handcuffed-accused-of-shoplifting-after-returning-items-to-victoria-s-secret/765179866

[JI7]

1. the reason was she is black

[JI7]

3. BS , this happens many times and people are NOT handcuffed over such a thing. it has happened to me

at least a couple times in my life. they don't even call security.

usually a store employee will just ask to check your bag or they don't even do that .

only reason they took such actions in this case was she is black.

[salin]

6. interesting, noncausal, explanation of cause and effect.

even more interesting is the choice of nic.

[JI7]

8. no, i'm not black and my point was they did NOT call security or even accuse

me of stealing when the sound went off from the tags they did not remove .

in this case it's because she was black they took such extreme actions over something that happens all the time.

[JI7]

11. i don't live in tennessee and it has nothing to do with victimhood which is totally owned by racist

Trump supporters.

it's about the facts .

[Oppaloopa]

15. True same thing happened to me

[RandiFan1290]

7. Welcome Back to DU!

[MyNameGoesHere]

10. What the fuck does a censor have to do with this?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. Sensor. The little theft-protection button stores attach to some garments.

[bornfree17]

5. Not a proud story to tell

But I'm telling it. My son who has a drug problem decided to rip off a package store. He is white as the day is long. He gave 2 AA (they were friends) $20 each to walk into the package store a head of him. Security followed them all around the store. While his buddies were being followed he made off with a few hundred dollars in stealing high priced liquor. He used the system to gain profit for drugs

[Tipperary]

25. Cool story, bro.

[Trust Buster]

12. I am white and chose to avoid a similar situation.

I bought a pair of socks online from Tommy Hilfiger. One pair arrived with a security buckle attached to them. I thought of going to a local store to have it removed. I ultimately decided to do without the socks rather than arouse suspicion. Tommy Hilfiger also has sent me jeans with little security tabs on the inside of the pant. They can’t seem to separate online sales from point of purchase sales.

[Lee-Lee]

13. Without knowing the SOPs of that department it's hard to say if anything was done wrong

by the officer. The store employee was clearly in the wrong.

A lot of agencies require a person suspected of shoplifting to be put into cuffs at the initial confrontation. Why? Because for whatever combination of reasons shoplifting calls have some of the highest rates of suspects escalating them by becoming disruptive, fighting officers or fleeing.

I saw that a lot- get a call for simple shoplifting and it turns into bigger charges. I saw more than one person turn what would have been a citation into a full blown felony. We had one that turned what would have been misdemeanor shoplifting into multiple felonies that landed her in jail for a couple years by kicking an officer (she actually messed his knee up bad enough he needed surgery and was out of work for 6 months), running to her car, fleeing and hitting a pedestrian on the way out, leading police on a chase, pulling up into her driveway at home, and assaulting 2 officers who tried to take her into custody. All over stealing some DVDs.

I don’t know what it is about shoplifters and the mentality, but that is one of the off things about the job. Those are some of the calls most likely to go off the rails and have people way overreact that they got caught. So as a result a lot of agencies have a policy to handcuff suspected shoplifters as soon as they detain them for an investigation.

Without knowing what that agencies policies are for that it’s impossible to judge if the officer acted poorly. And even if they don’t mandate handcuffing if anyone detained for shoplifting his own experiences dealing with shoplifters could lead him to do that for the safety of all involved.

But the store employee, or employees, yeah they screwed up big time by getting the cops involved.

[Demsrule86]

18. Handcuffing a suspected shoplifter... the cops are wrong...and this would not happen to a white

person.

[Lee-Lee]

19. I handcuffed lots of white shoplifting suspects

In fact in a county that was about 85% white but probably 95% of shoplifters I dealt with an handcuffed were white.

Your blanket statements about what would of would not happen are not rooted in fact at all.

[uponit7771]

20. The police officer has a duty to assess the situation

[Lee-Lee]

23. And that's what the officer did

Showed up, detained the accused person, assessed the situation, determined the accusation was without merit and ended the detention period when he finished his investigation.

Like I said, various departments have varied policies on when:if a person detained for an investigation is cuffed. Without knowing what local policy was, seeing video of their interactions, knowing the officers past experience with shoplifting suspects and much more we can’t say if the officers actions were wrong or not.

People automatically saying the cop only did it because she was black are demonstrating the same level of bias, assumption and ignorance as the clerk who automatically assumed the woman was shoplifting did.

[uponit7771]

24. If he accessed the situation holistically he had no need to detain anyone

Since the person was not free to go and was placed in handcuffs, the detention is officially an arrest.

There was no need to arrest this person

The duty to assess is before actions are taken not afterwards and you know that

[Lee-Lee]

27. I don't think you understand what detain means

If an officer tells you to come talk to them for an investigation and that you cannot leave you are legally detained.

It doesn’t matter if you are standing there, in handcuffs, or even handcuffed in the back of a police car.

For example if you get pulled over for speeding, you are detained. You are not free to leave until the officer concludes the traffic stop.

She would have been legally detained for the course of his investigation of the shoplifting allegation regardless.

Now, as I said, without knowing his department policy, her actions and attitude, and many other factors we cannot say if the use of handcuffs was proper or not. Many departments require all people detained for shoplifting investigations to be cuffed because so many of those calls needlessly get escalated by the suspects into much worse calls, and cuffing while the call in investigated prevents that- meaning everyone is safer, it doesn’t escalate to a place where force needs to be used, it doesn’t escalate to the person getting more serious charges and everyone is safer.

If the departments policy called for cuffing or allowed it under those circumstances than it was justified.

The problem here is 100% the employee making the baseless accusations.

[uponit7771]

28. Lee you understand I know I can ask if I'm under arrest if I'm not I can leave

... but if I cannot leave then I am officially under arrest.

I understand this keeps a lot of Leo's from playing with the detention / arrest terminology

He did not need to arrest or handcuffed her to detain her ... That's not what happens at traffic stops...that was wholly unnecessary

It seems like a dogged stretched to blame detaining somebody with handcuffs in this situation on policy

[Lee-Lee]

29. No, you don't understand

What you posted is wrong.

Law enforcement officers working in their jurisdiction have the legal authority to detain a person, while the person is not arrested, for purposes of investigation of a possible crime. The appropriate period they are allowed to detain is based on circumstances and lots of varied case law.

You can be detained, not free to leave, but not under arrest.

What you posted is not accurate. You are under arrest when you are taken into custody for purposes of charging you with a crime.

Once again we go to the traffic stop example. If you get pulled over you are being detained on the side of the road. You are not under arrest, however you are not free to leave. The officer has the legal authority to detain you for a reasonable period needed to investigate the suspect violation of the law, any other suspected violations they can reasonably articulate based on their observations, and write the appropriate citation.

And until the trafffic stop is concluded you are not free to go, but you are not under arrest. You are detained.

If you follow your advice above and ask an officer who pulls you over if you are under arrest and then try to drive away when he says no then you are going to have a bad day- and find yourself actually under arrest and learn the difference.

[uponit7771]

30. I am not detained with handcuffs at a traffic stop that is an arrest

[Lee-Lee]

31. No, is not

Cuffs do not equal an arrest.

I’ve placed lots of people in cuffs at traffic stops for one reason or another and didn’t arrest them.

Your kind of “I don’t know what I’m talking about but going to claimmugs true” lawyering is the kind of bad advice people spread that ends up getting people in trouble when they believe it and try to act on it during a traffic stop or other event.

[Demsrule86]

21. Sure you did...you always side with super authority and refuse to acknowledge the wrongdoing of cops

and others particularly when dealing with people of color...you defended Starbucks, certain teachers etc...I just don't agree with you at all.

[Shrike47]

32. I live in an area that is 90 percent white; shoplifters can put up a hell of a fight.

When I practiced criminal defense, several of my clients had escalated shoplifting, when caught, into far more violent crimes. However, I do not think the police should have the authority to put handcuffs on anybody until they arrest the person.

[Lee-Lee]

34. Yeah people get really stupid

I saw more people escalate simple misdemeanors or citations or even warnings into much worse charges by doing stupid things.

And for whatever reason shoplifting calls did it more often than anything else. One memorable one was a simple call, I would have written a citation, trespassed her from the premises and let her go. But when I got there she proceed to run and make me catch her, then kick me and spit in me, then give me a fake name.

So she ended up in jail that evening.

As for handcuffs, it shouldn’t be a default thing but officers need the ability to do so. I’ve had traffic stops where a person wouldn’t quit reaching in pockets or around in the car when told. Putting them in cuffs at that point not only makes things safer for me, but also for them. If they do have a weapon it keeps them from going for it and creating a much more dangerous situation, and prevents any cases of misinterpreted movements also. Same when it’s just me with backup 10-15 minutes away and 3-4 people in a car are all taking actions that are indicative they may try to fight or flee.

I ended up cuffing a lot of people on fight/domestic calls. You show up and don’t know who is the aggressor and who is the victim but everyone is agitated and aggressive, so it’s far safer to cuff everyone and let them cool off while we investigate than leave them uncoffed and let tempers flare back up and have another assault on involved parties happen where we then have to use physical force to start it.

That said, because of complaints about how/when it’s down a lot of departments, especially bigger ones, and taking more and more of that discretion on when to use cuffs during a detention away from the officers and making them always do it by policy during certain kinds of calls. That eliminates and chance of accusations of bias or disparate treatment.

[safeinOhio]

14. I hope Ms Jones can turn that gift card into

$100K plus lawyers fees.

[FreshStart1]

16. Racial profiling, pure and simple.

Half the time, it seems like the alarms near the doors do not go off. I've had that happen to me quite a few times. I just bring the item back, and never an issue. My mother bought my grandpa a sweater on Christmas eve, and there was a tag still on it. I had to carefully use a dremel to remove it, because the store was closed on Christmas.

I'm glad VS fired the employee, too chicken shit to even ask the lady for a receipt, just hid and called the cops.

[malaise]

17. Sue them

They only love money

[uponit7771]

22. Both the officer in the store owner

[gademocrat7]

33. Hope the victim sues Victoria's Secret.