Trayon Christian, a young Black patron of the Barneys store in New York who claimed he was racially profiled for buying a high-end belt, has won a $45,000 from the city. Back in 2013, Christian, then a student at the New York City College of Technology, was stop-and-frisked after purchasing a belt for $349 by two undercover NYPD detectives.
On April 27, 2013, Chrisitan purchased a black and white Ferragamo belt via his debit card, which allegedly prompted store officials to have him tailed by the detectives. According to Christian, the cops said they stopped him because they didn’t believe the student could afford such a pricey item.
Christian launched a suit against the store and the NYPD in October 2013 which resulted in the settlement.
The New York Daily News reports:
“They said my card wasn’t real, it was fake. They said someone at Barneys called to report it,” Christian, who was 18 at the time of the alleged arrest, told The News in October 2013.
The detectives asked to see his ID and look in his bag and they asked him whether and where he worked, he also said during this interview.
“The detectives were asking me, ‘How could you afford a belt like this? Where did you get this money from?'”
The cops then handcuffed Christian and held him at the 19th Precinct for what he said was two hours although police said it was just a 40-minute detainment. The police reportedly apologized and gave the now 21-year-old Christian back his card and belt.
Barneys agreed to pay $525,000 in fines to settle the racial profiling claims in 2014.
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