Police in Gloucester County, NJ are investigating a prank at a local Walmart after a person made a racially offensive comment on the store's public-address system Sunday evening.
According to the Gloucester County Times:
Sheila Ellington, of Williamstown was at the self-checkout of the Walmart at about 6:45 p.m. with her neighbor Patricia Covington. The pair were finishing up their shopping when the inappropriate message was made.Cops and the store are reviewing surveillance tapes to determine who made the racist statement. The county is offering counselling to those African Americans in the store at the time who were affected by the prank.
"Just as I finished bagging my purchases there was an announcement that said Ôattention Walmart customers, all black people must leave the store now,'" Ellington explained. "Once I heard that, it was almost like a hush over the whole store momentarily because no one had believed what had taken place."
The two women made their way over to the customer service counter where a group of people had quickly assembled.
After about 10 minutes, Ellington said the manager of the store emerged and told them that he was aware of the situation and that store security was reviewing security tape footage to try to find who had used the public address, or PA, system.
Police responded and Ellington, who is on the executive committee of the Gloucester County Minority Coalition and an attorney who specializes in cases involving bias, told officers she'd like the incident to be reported as a bias incident as well as harassment.
More than a dozen black people were in the store at the time.
"I couldn't believe I heard what I actually heard," Covington said. "I'm just pretty upset. You can't imagine how much time I spent there. I can't envision walking through those doors again, at least not yet."
Update: On March 19 a 16-year-old boy was arrested and charged with harassment and bias intimidation.
source
3 comments:
they're over reacting
@Anon: I don't think so. The story is gaining heat and was just on the philly nightly local news. Thanks to Wendyista for putting it early b/c here in Philly, the media is a day late! The local station interviewed an older black gentleman. He said something I never thought. He said when he was in the store and heard the announcement, he called 911. Why? He said they had no idea if a gunman (or persons) would be waiting up front our outside in the parking lot ready to shoot! So there is no way they overreacted. It's best to be safe than sorry.
I meant they are over reacting for getting counseling. If I heard that on the PDA, I would be shocked but not the point to say "I NEED A THERAPIST!"
Post a Comment