In another bizarre case of racial profiling, an Ohio man is suing two West Chester police officers and grocery store chain Meijer alleging that he was illegally detained by the two officers at the store.
In his lawsuit, first reported by local station FOX-19, 60-Year-Old Eric Lindsay of Liberty Township says he went to the Meijer store off Interstate 75 and Tylersviller Road on his way home from work on January 29, 2021, and was detained as soon as he arrived at the store by the officers who were responding to a shoplifting offense.
Lindsay is a Black man in his 60s. At the time of the incident, he wore an orange puffy coat with a tan and brown scarf that night and was the only black person in the store.
The suspect was described to police by representatives of Meijer as a white man in his 30s wearing a green or gray Carhart coat with a red hoodie underneath. But they decided to stop Lindsay instead, the lawsuit alleges.
The suit claims unlawful detention and says Lindsay suffered humiliation, embarrassment and severe emotional distress.
“In the same being as so many national instances where African-Americans have been confronted by law enforcement for engaging in their daily lives and doing nothing illegal, this case is about the unsupportable and illegal profiling, detention, accusing, and interrogation of an African-American customer by Police Officers and the complicit actions of the retail store where it occurred,” the lawsuit states.
The suit names Officers Tanner Csendes and Timothy Mitkenbaugh; John and Jane Does and ABC Corporations.
Lindsay’s attorney, Fanon Rucker, said Lindsay was the only African-American in the store and “is the last person they should have stopped.
“They walked past a dozen or more shoppers, don’t speak to a single one, and go to him and start bothering him,” Rucker said.
The lawsuit says the manager “did nothing to prevent or stop the unconstitutional detention.” (full document below).
