Lawyer for National Action Network charges retailer with 'racial profiling'

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Imagine going into a store where a sign is clearly posted “ID required for all transactions” and you were the only person singled out to show your ID when others were not.

If you were a black person, and a civil rights lawyer and the chief counsel to the National Action Network, and that happened to you, it would no doubt trigger some sense that profiling had just taken place. This is one such story, and it happened to Michael Hardy General Counsel for Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. But it could very well be a series of unfortunate circumstances.

Sartorially dressed in a black fedora hat, a black overcoat and his natty Friday casual, Michael Hardy walked in to a Manhattan liquor store near Columbus Circle on Friday to buy two bottles of Port wine. Hardy told theGrio that the person in front of him paid by charge card but when it came to him, he was required to show ID. The person in front of Mr. Hardy was a white man. Hardy said he felt this was a bit unusual and asked why he was to produce ID when the person in front of him was not required to do so. He was told by the clerk that the other customer was a regular and known to him. The clerk himself is black.

Hardy took exception, telling the employee that he had no problem showing ID if it was required of every customer, without exception. “The issue is not that you know a customer,” said Hardy, “but what is required of all customers.”  Hardy said, “By not enforcing policies regardless of familiarity makes customers feel offended.”  Hardy told theGrio that he had spent the past several months assisting with National Action Network and a consortium of retailers to compose a “Customers’ Bill of Rights.” This was in response to charges of racial profiling being lodged at Barney’s, Macy’s and a number of other high-profile fashion and apparel retailers.

This past November, executives from the high-end stores in Manhattan agreed to sit on a panel formed by retailers and civil rights leaders after the Rev. Al Sharpton called for action in the wake of complaints that black shoppers were being profiled. The goal of the working group is clarify store policies and establish monitors to watch for racial profiling and make recommendations for training. The problems surfaced in October when two black shoppers accused Barneys and the NYPD of racially profiling them as they shopped at the upscale store. Two other black shoppers have made similar allegations against Macy’s.

In early December Macy’s and Barneys, along with Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor and the Gap among others, promised to post and abide by a “Customers’ Bill of Rights.” The one-page document, drafted by the Retail Council of New York State, declares: “Profiling is an unacceptable practice and will not be tolerated.” It says each store in question “is committed to ensuring that all shoppers, guests and employees are treated with respect and dignity and are free from unreasonable searches, profiling and discrimination of any kind.” There is a training and awareness component asking retailers to put in place “internal programs to test compliance with strict prohibitions against profiling practices.” And to encourage enforcement, the pact requires employees who violate the company’s prohibition on profiling to be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment.