Trump calls for Macy’s Christmas boycott

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6. Before you head to Herald Square ...

http://consumerist.com/2015/12/04/lawsuit-claims-macys-detains-minorities-in-shoplifting-cells-makes-them-pay-bogus-fines/
Lawsuit Claims Macy’s Detains Minorities In Shoplifting Cells, Makes Them Pay Bogus Fines

More than a year after Macy’s agreed to pay $650K to settle allegations of racial profiling in its stores and promised it would incorporate more staff training to combat such behavior, a woman has filed a class-action lawsuit against the department store, claiming it unfairly detains minority shoppers and puts them in holding cells, whether they’ve done anything wrong or not. On top of that, the complaint claims, Macy’s then extorts those people for bogus fines.

In the complaint the woman says the retailer imprisons minority shoplifters in special holding cells.

“This coercive collection practice or scheme has become so profitable that Macy’s…has dedicated an entire unit within its existing store, which operates like a typical jail, equipped with holding cells, where alleged shoplifters are held for hours on end, and are pressured, threatened, and often harassed until they find no reprieve but to make civil penalty payments to (Macy’s),” the suit states.

The plaintiff says that she was detained at Macy’s flagship Herald Square location in New York City back in July 2014. She claims that a guard took her to the cell under suspicion that she was planning to steal a set of shirts. According to the complaint, she was kept in that cell and questioned for three hours, without being given the chance to call a lawyer or her family, and forced to sign papers admitting her guilt. She accuses the retailer of making her pay $100 fine in cash before she was turned over to police.