Racial Profiling
Testimony from Amnesty International USA's hearings on Racial Profiling
Victims Accounts of Racial Profiling While Shopping
Race is sometimes misused by security guards to target individuals for possible theft at shopping malls. Although security guards are not technically police officers, they are often seen as "peace officers" with the ability to detain and question individuals. They are also often afforded wide discretion, which sometimes leads to racial profiling.
- THE CASE OF SHARON SIMMONS-THOMAS
As a reporter with an African-American newspaper based in Harlem, Herb Boyd has covered cases of profiling at shopping centers. He testified about one such case at our hearing in New York City.
Mr. Boyd says that in the few months prior to the hearings, he reported on several stories of African Americans and Latinos who, upon entering stores, were quickly followed by security guards and often falsely arrested, subjected to abuse and embarrassment, and finally banned from the store. This practice, he says, is merely another form of a 'stop and frisk' search, such as those routinely employed in many cities against African-American and Latino youth. Mr. Boyd shared the case of Sharon Simmons- Thomas, an African-American woman,
" Last December...[Ms.] Simmons stopped in ...[a major department store] to do a little quick shopping. When leaving the store, she was apprehended by two plainclothes security guards. "They wouldn't say who they were, but they accused me of shoplifting," she said. The guards refused to look at the receipts Simons had waved in their face. She was handcuffed, paraded in front of other customers, and then escorted to the store's detention cells, which are just atrocious. "I've never been so embarrassed in my life," she continued. In the detention cells were several other customers being held as suspect shoplifters, all of them people of color. "They ran a background check on me and discovered I didn't have a criminal record," she said. Three hours later, after being humiliated by a body search, threatened with physical force and attempts to coerce a false confession, she was freed but without her [purchases]."
Ms. Simons has filed a lawsuit against the department store's parent company.When this report went to press it was awaiting trial.
- THE CASE OF KIMBERLY 'ASMA' AL-HAMSI
After the attacks of September 11, 2001, Arabs, Muslims, and others who are perceived to be of Middle-Eastern or Muslim descent have also been targets at shopping malls. Consider the testimony of Ms. Kimberly "Asma" Al-Hamsi from our hearings in Dallas.
Ms. Al-Hamsi, a white American Muslim of German descent, wears a hijab, has multiple sclerosis and walks with a crutch. Ms. Al-Hamsi was at the mall with her son, who is deaf and has cerebral palsy. While waiting for her friend, she was accosted by a man and two women who began yelling at her to go back home because she did not belong here. As Ms. Al-Hamsi was telling the group to leave her alone, she noticed a group of men observing her. One of the men approached her and began asking where she lived and demanding to see her driver's license. Since he was not in uniform, Ms. Al-Hamsi refused, at which point the plain-clothed officer grabbed her from behind and told her she was being charged with terrorism, hate crimes, and disorderly conduct. FBI agents were called in and began to question her about the validity of her I.D., about her ethnic descent, and her views on the war with Iraq. She describes the encounter,
" There were more than 20 people surrounding me. [The FBI agent] asked me – first question from his mouth after I gave him my license, he says, "Where did you get this false I.D.?" ...He says, "You Arabs ...don't have things like this." I said, I'm not an Arab. And he said, "You are not Muslim then?" I said, yes I'm Muslim, I am German American.... [H]e says, "What's your view on the war in Iraq?"
The agents then separated her from her disabled son for over an hour as they took her to her car and searched the vehicle. Although nothing was found she claims that she is now routinely followed and harassed by federal officials.