Trayon Christian, who was handcuffed and detained by undercover police because he spent $350 at Barneys in 2013, has won a $45,000 settlement from the city after suing over racial profiling.
Christian, who was 19 at the time and studying engineering at the New York City College of Technology, said that he went to the department store on April 27, 2013 after receiving a paycheck from his work-study job and purchased a Ferragamo belt. After paying for the belt with his debit card and leaving Barneys, he was stopped a block away on Madison Avenue by plainclothes detectives who said that someone at the store had called to report that Christian had used a fake card.
He recalled the cops demanding, "How could you afford a belt like this? Where did you get this money from?" They handcuffed him and took him to the 19th Precinct, where he was held for at least 42 minutes before police determined that his debit card was not a fake and let him go. Christian later returned the belt to the store, saying, "I'm not shopping there again. It's cruel. It's racist."
Barneys initially shirked any responsibility in the cases of Christian and Kayla Phillips, another black customer at Barneys who alleged a similar incident after Christian came forward. The department store tried to put the onus on the NYPD, but after the attorney general investigated and got the details of the store's policies from two former security guards, Barneys had to pay $525,000 and hire an anti-profiling consultant.
A spokesperson for the city's Law Department declined to comment beyond saying that "Settling was in the best interest of the city."
