A Humiliating, Heartbreaking Experience with Racial Profiling…read more
I am writing this as a student at UW-River Falls to share an encounter that left me feeling deeply humiliated, hurt, and made to feel less than human. What happened to me at DeVine Liquors on Saturday, August 22nd, 2026, between 10:45 AM and 10:55 AM is something no customer or person should ever have to go through.
I went into the store, looked around, and left without purchasing anything. I then walked next door to an adjacent shop for other business. Shortly after coming outside, a female cashier wearing a red shirt rushed towards me into the street. In front of people in the area--including a customer in a black pickup truck--she aggressively confronted me, demanding to know what I had taken and insisting I had stolen from the store.
The pain and helplessness of being falsely accused in public like that is indescribable. I stood my ground, explicitly told her I hadn't taken anything, and even encouraged her to call the police so my name could be cleared right then and there. She refused.
What makes this even more distressing is that during the confrontation, she was wearing an earpiece and communicating with someone (she mentioned it was her daughter) who was actively monitoring the store's security camera feed. If anyone was watching those cameras, they saw clearly that I did not take a single thing. Yet, despite having video evidence proving my innocence, she chose to chase me down and publicly accuse me anyway. When she claimed I "didn't look old enough to be in the store," I willingly walked back inside to present my official ID to prove my age. She refused to even look at it. Later, when I called the store to reach the owner, Mr. DeVine, to share what happened, the same employee refused to give me any direct contact information or way to reach management, leaving me feeling completely shut out, insisting that they're not allowed to give up that information.
To be targeted, followed into the street, falsely accused despite clear camera footage, and denied even the basic respect of showing my ID was deeply degrading. It felt like blatant racial profiling. I left feeling utterly stripped of my dignity over something I did not do.
I am sharing this online in the hope that ownership takes this seriously, reviews the security footage from that morning, and holds staff accountable. No one in our community should ever be made to feel the embarrassment and sadness I was forced to feel today.