Black student, NYC reach $45K settlement after alleged Barneys profiling, stop and frisk

Jan 20, 2016

Trayon Christian has won a $45,000 settlement against the city of New York after he was allegedly profiled by Barneys and stopped and frisked by the NYPD.

Christian said that he was stopped and harassed by undercover NYPD detectives after he bought a $349 belt in April 2013, and Barneys apparently called the police because they believed he had perpetuated credit card fraud.

“They said my card wasn’t real, it was fake. They said someone at Barneys called to report it,” and 18-year-old Christian told the Daily News in October 2013.

Along with asking to see Christian’s ID, the cops asked him whether he worked and where he worked. At the time, Christian was an engineering student at the New York City College of Technology and had a job there.

“The detectives were asking me, ‘How could you afford a belt like this? Where did you get this money from?'” Christian recalled.

Christian was then placed in handcuffs and kept in a holding cell before he was eventually released and given back both his belt and debit card. Upon his release, the police also apologized to him.

Barneys agreed to pay $525,000 in fines in August of 2014 in order to settle claims of racial profiling, while the terms of their settlement with Christian are not known.