Rob Brown, a star of the HBO show “Treme,” said that he was racially profiled at a Macy’s store in Manhattan and “paraded” through Herald Square in handcuffs, according to reports.
Brown said that he was then detained for an hour after a Macy’s employee called the police on him, suspecting that a credit card he was using wasn’t right, reported the New York Daily News.
Brown, who has also starred in “The Express” with Dennis Quaid and “Don Jon,” has now filed a lawsuit against the retailer.
Brown said that he was targeted because he is black.
“The bottom line is…this isn’t about money, this about proving a point,” Brown’s attorney, John Eleftrekais, told the New York Post.
Brown, 29, played a jazz trumpeter in “Treme.” He said he was illegally searched on June 8. “Police officers ran up to him, arrested him, and then kept him in a jail cell in Macy’s,” his attorney said.
“We are investigating the alleged claims, as we were just made aware of this lawsuit. We do not comment on matters in litigation,” Macy’s said in a statement after the suit was filed.
The incident comes after two people said they were racially profiled at a Barney’s in Manhattan.
Trayon Christian, 19, accused workers at Barney’s of racially profiling him and asked “how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt,” the Post reported.
