On Thursday, May 3 three black men were wrongly accused of shoplifting at the Nordstrom Rack in Brentwood at Brentwood Square; they were there to shop for prom shirts. Brentwood Police arrived and determined there was no crime. Here’s a collection of coverage from New York to Seattle to Miami.
- ABC Fort Meyers — Nordstrom Rack president apologizes to 3 black men wrongly accused of theft
- ABC West Palm Beach — Nordstrom Rack apologizes to 3 black teens falsely accused of stealing
- Akron Beacon Journal (OH) — National news briefs: Nordstrom Rack apologizes to 3 black shoppers
- AOL — Nordstrom Rack falsely accuses 3 black teenagers shopping for their prom clothes of theft
- Boing Boing — Nordstrom Rack falsely accuses 3 young black men of stealing and calls the cops on them
- Business Insider — Nordstrom Rack apologizes after backlash over black teens being falsely accused of theft while prom shopping
- CBS News Money Watch — Nordstrom Rack wrongly accuses 3 black men of theft, apologizes
- CNN Money — Nordstrom Rack apologizes for falsely accusing black teens of stealing
- Fox 2 — Nordstrom Rack apologizes after three black men accused of stealing
- Huffington Post — Nordstrom Rack President Apologizes After Store Accuses Three Black Men Of Theft
- KMOV — 3 black teens wrongly accused of theft meet with Nordstrom Rack president
- KSDK — Morning Rush | Nordstrom Rack apologizes, a couple denied money order, and Bill and Ted returns
- Miami Herald — ‘I was totally embarrassed’: Black teens falsely accused of theft while prom shopping
- New York Daily News — Nordstrom Rack apologizes to three black teens its employees falsely accused of shoplifting
- New York Times — Nordstrom Rack Apologizes to Black Teenagers Falsely Accused of Stealing in St. Louis
- The St. Louis American — Nordstrom Rack apologizes to teens wrongly accused of shoplifting at Brentwood store, president flies St. Louis to meet with teens and families
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch — Nordstrom Rack apologizes after 3 black men are falsely accused of stealing from Brentwood store
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch — Nordstrom Rack president meets with the three black men falsely accused of theft
- The Seattle Times — Nordstrom Rack apologizes to 3 black men accused of stealing
- Ozark First — Nordstrom Rack President Apologizes to 3 Black Men Wrongly Accused of Theft
- The Root — Nordstrom Rack Calls Cops on 3 Black Teens Shopping for Prom, Wrongly Accuses Them of Stealing
- The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA) — Nordstrom Rack apologizes after 3 black men are falsely accused of stealing from store
- Syracuse.com — Nordstrom Rack apologizes after falsely accusing black teens of theft in MO
- USA Today — Nordstrom Rack apologizes for accusing 3 black teens shopping for prom of theft
- The Washington Post — Nordstrom Rack apologizes after calling the police on three black teens who were shopping for prom
- West Plains Daily Quill (MO) — Nordstrom Rack apologizes to 3 black men accused of stealing
- WTOL (Toledo) — Cops called after Nordstrom rack employees falsely accuse 3 black teens of theft
White people (of which I am one) have GOT TO STOP CALLING THE COPS every single time you are uneasy or “not quite sure what is going on” or thinking something “just doesn’t seem right”. You call the cops with the same ease that you ask to speak to the manager at a store or a restaurant. Stop being so afraid of everything. Everything is NOT an immediate threat to you. Treat people with the same level of humanity and kindness that you take for granted.
Those white people like yourself are called loss prevention employees, they are paid to watch people.
Yeah, and apparently they suck at their job
I worked retail for years. Cops do NOT appreciate being called to handle in-store loss prevention. You can watch people and approach shop lifters WITHOUT calling the police. If you can’t, you are BAD at your job.
The media doesn’t need to point out color or religion or ethnicity. The media escalates racial and religious issues. Saying three men falsely accused is enough
It is a racial issue, though. How often do you see 3 white kids get tailed in a store and called the police on for nothing? Ignoring it doesn’t make it go away.
Funny how fast everyone was to point out race when nothing happened but you rarely hear of it in St. Louis’ daily random shootings, carjackings, or robberies.
What’s your point?
What’s yours?
I would like you to elaborate on your comment.
I’ll elaborate on Todd’s comment: It is a sad time for JOURNALISM in today’s society when an incident where 3 men of color (hell, we all have some sort of pigmentation) are accused of committing a crime and it turns out that they DIDN’T commit a crime and were NOT arrested —-> gets more press time than all of thousands of rapes, vandalism, murders, robberies, carjacking, and all of the other crimes that have taken place in St. Louis and all the other towns that are mentioned in Doug’s article. It is called “Yellow Journalism.” It is using or creating or exploiting a smaller, more emotional event to get more news articles read or sold. The news media is using racism to enhance their readership (and thus, get more advertisers) instead of focusing on events of more importance.
So the media should just ignore blatant racist events, like this, that still happen in this day and age?
I’m sure it has nothing to do with the fact that BUSINESSES are doing this to customers. And that of the thousands of customers these businesses see every day, that they just so happened to treat those particular customers differently. And that it just so happens that those particular customers seem to typically be people of color.
But yeah, you keep on being sad for the state of journalism.
Although Nordstrom’s behavior was concerning, I’m glad to see that the BPD handled this situation in a professional and respectable manor.
I agree Brandon. No escalation, just investigation (after employee called 911) and discussion with the young men. The employee was in the wrong and the BPD confirmed that and the young men were on their way. Sad that this even occurred in the first place…
Wendy, If you were the employee at the store, and you were in the same location as she was, to the three men, then you might have accused them, also. Things aren’t always as they seem.
Why’s that? Is the employee new? Or is there some other reason?
Thank God our police handled the situation better than the Philadelphia police.
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