UPDATE 5/10: Click here to read the email sent to City Place Manager Gary Brewer on February 18th — in which I complained about similar incidents three months before these boys say it happened to them.
In case you didn't follow all of that, the boys said they entered the mall and were first told they had to leave because they were wet (it was raining), and then because they were carrying a ball. They left the mall and dried off, stashed the ball and went back to try to get into the mall. According to the boys, the security guard told them they still couldn't go in and started yelling at them to get out.
At some point the boys came across another security guy, and that dude told them they could be in the mall. When the kids told the first security guy what the other one said, he told the boys he didn't care what the other security guy said, and they needed to get out of the mall.
Minority kids at City Place Mall
On Tuesday February 10th, one of my children and I witnessed a group of black boys coming into City Place Mall through the Ellsworth Street entrance. A security guard stopped them and told them they couldn't go into the mall...because one of them was carrying a ball. (The kid was carrying a basketball, but he was only carrying it -- it hadn't been bounced at all.) The boys told the security guard that they'd put the ball in a backpack, and at first he continued to say they couldn't go in, but at that point it seemed as if he became aware that I was watching him, and he told the kids they could go in.
A few days later, I was eating in the City Place food court and a group of young black people were sitting next to me. They were complaining vehemently about that same security guard, and about being harassed for no reason. I don't know the specifics of their story, but I found it interesting that I just happened to sit next to some people who had problems with the same security guard.
Over the next week, I saw 5 different groups of people being harassed by this security guard, and they all happened to be young and black.
On Tuesday, February 17th, I watched as the 19 year-old son of a close friend was being harassed by the same guard. This young man is a freshman in college, has lived here his whole life and has contributed to this community in many ways, and has even done activism work abroad. He was carrying a scooter -- a kid's toy -- and the guard had a problem with that. The guard told the young man he had to close it up, and that in the future, he could not come into the mall with the scooter. I was behind the guard listening to what was going on, and at that point I spoke up and asked him where the "no scooter" signs were. He insisted they had them, but of course, they don't exist. It seems this guy makes up mall rules as he goes along, and whatever he says to young people, is what the rule is at any given point. And apparently, mall management allows him to do this.
Also on February 17th, I spoke with a number of young people who work for Gandhi Brigade, which has a space inside City Place Mall. All of those I spoke with are minorities, and they told me they had been harassed by this guy for years.
On February 18th, I wrote to Gary Brewer, Manager of City Place, and relayed to him the harassment that I had witnessed and had reported to me.
I never got a reply.
On Thursday, May 7th, I saw a group of four black boys being yelled at by the security guard. I spoke with two security guards who gave me conflicting accounts of what happened, and the one who allegedly told the boys they couldn't go in the mall, the same one who was the object of all of the other complaints, basically said he didn't do it — he said the boys were playing with the ball and that's why he told them they couldn't go in the mall. But I had previously witnessed him telling a different group of black boys they couldn't enter the mall because they were carrying a ball, and I saw that entire incident and I know they weren't playing with the ball.
5/10 Update: Email sent to Gary Brewer
to garybrewer@cityplacemd.com
date Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 3:04 PM
subject Abusive behavior by security
Mr. Brewer,
In the past week, I've seen more than 5 incidents of one of your security guards, aggressively harrassing people coming into your mall. They all happen to be young, and they all happen to be minorities.
Why can't young minorities go into City Place without being harrassed? Why can't I carry a child's toy, a scooter into the mall? You used to sell them. And if I can't carry a scooter into the mall, why is there not a very visible sign letting me know that BEFORE I come into the mall? Why is your security guard regularly threatening your customers, and threatening to confiscate their belongings? That's against the law, and he should not be threatening any such thing. Why can't I, or a young person, particularly a young minority, carry a ball into the mall? Will I be harrassed and hassled if I happen to be playing ball with my child, and we choose to stop into City Place for a bite to eat?
Every single minority young person I've talked to in the past few days has a story about being harrassed by this security guard. His behavior reflects extremely poorly on City Place Mall management. I intend to discuss this serious issue with other members of my community.
I was at the Majestic 20 a year or so ago with a group of my friends. (I'm half-Black, half-Indian; the friends I was with were all white.) Upstairs in the entrance to the movie theatres, a group of black kids who were ahead of us were forced to show their bags to the ticket-taker, who was white. (This was, of course, after they were already inside and had bought their tickets.) My friends and I were able to pass through without any trouble. I'm sure this wasn't the first or last time this happened.
ReplyDelete-Dan
www.justupthepike.com
What gets me is how compliant the minority kids I've seen being subjected to this kind of thing have been. When told to follow certain rules, they willingly obliged, when in many cases the rules were bogus to begin with.
ReplyDeleteLike the boys I saw going into the mall carrying a ball. When told they couldn't go in with the ball, they didn't argue or fuss, just very politely said they would put the ball in a backpack.
They seemed completely unaware that an unfair standard was being applied to them for entrance into the mall.