I am a man of color who was not only traumatized but racially profiled, discriminated against , and harassed at your local grocery market. Shannon. I entered the store with my Caucasian fiancé, to buy some spirits for our house and pick up our kid from the bus stop at the same time as it was cold and he stayed inside Safeway waiting for us to arrive as told. We got there and looked at the selection as Shannon walks by the and starts fondling with some of the store's inventory, she asks from afar if we needed any help, i said yes when we're ready can you bring the key over. She disappeared and moments later we were ready so we pressed the attendance button. We were waiting for multiple minutes. At this point i was taken aback when a young boy no older than 17 approached to assist us with the alcoholic beverages in the case. At the same time, we did not realize we were being profiled as thieves. The young boy got us the locked up items. The local sheriffs came by to answer Shannon's call, we were then detained without question, or reason. As I tried to step away the sheriff Madison he grabbed my arm and said, "You don't get to walk away from me.", I'm a 30 year old black man and was completely triggered by the physical contact and just wanted space clarity and safety. Keep in mind we had been in the store for about 5-10 minutes looking at what we wanted , we pressed the service button once and no one came. I don't know if they assumed we were playing with it called the police and said our kid put something in his backpack he was merely putting calogne on, bored/passing time as he is an impulsive child with high functioning autism spectrum disorder. We were waiting for such a long time. At this time i told them to go check the cameras and they found everything to be true.
We simply walked into Safeway to meet our cold son from off the bus, buy something and got framed as thieves, my fiancé owns a hair salon and i am an independent artist, we are hard workers, we have no intention of taking anything from anyone that does not belong to us. My rights were violated, i was discriminated against and i ask for immediate investigation & action. Your employee's conduct was unacceptable. I hope her profiling me and my family will be found discriminatory, racist, unacceptable, and not what Safeway stands for - these employees need to face consequences for their actions. I understand wprecautions in regards to shoplifting but there were no reasons to assume we were doing anything other than shopping. read more