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racial profiling

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Beverly Hills police frisked Versace executive Salehe Bembury for holding one of his company's own bags

via Beverly Hills PD and Salehe Bembury / Instagram

Salehe Bembury was understandably outraged after being stopped and frisked by a Beverly Hills police officer on Thursday. He was apprehended by officers for jaywalking after shopping at the Versace store.

"I was in Beverly Hills. I went to go visit my buddy Amiri's store. And I was like, you know what, I'm never in Beverly Hills, let me stop by the Versace store. I grab a few things, and I'm walking back to my car," he said in a video he recorded after the incident.

"All of a sudden, this cop car pulls up on me on the corner, like with the quickness," he said.

Now, jaywalking is illegal in Beverly Hills, so the police weren't wrong to stop him. But the way they treat him during the interaction is why Bembury, and many others, believe he was the victim of racial profiling.

The incident was recorded on the police officer's bodycam and later released to the public.

The story is even more infuriating because Bembury is the Vice President of Sneakers and Men's Footwear at Versace.

See on Instagram

In 2015, Kanye West came across Bembury's designs and hired him at Yeezy to handle Men's Footwear. In 2017, he was hired by Donatella Versace as the Head Designer of Sneakers for Versace and Versus.

"What did I do? I'm like a little startled right now," Bembury said at the beginning of the encounter. "Oh, I jaywalked I guess," he responded. Bembury told the police that he was staring at the GPS on his phone when he crossed a solid red-hand sign.

The officer then asked if he could search Bembury for any weapons and for his identification. Bembury agreed to the search and handed his over his wallet.

"What's unfortunate is I literally designed the shoes that are in this bag, and I'm getting fucking searched for it," Bembury was heard saying.

"I'm just walking down the street, this is a little ridiculous," Bembury said. "You hear it in my voice, I'm uncomfortable and nervous?"

VERSACE FOOTWEAR VP ACCUSES BEV HILLS COPS OF PROFILING For Shopping While Blackwww.youtube.com

The police officers frisked Bembury to see if he had any weapons, but they had little reason to be suspicious. According to LegalZoom, you can only be frisked under certain circumstances, which include:

Potential for an officer or bystanders to be injured

Officer is alone, without backup

Officers are outnumbered by a group that has been stopped

People in the group appear agitated or are behaving strangely

You provide evasive answers to questions

Suspicion that you are armed

Suspicion that you may be about to commit a crime using a weapon

Time of day or geographic area in conjunction with other factors

Considering LegalZoom's criteria, there doesn't appear to be any good reason for Bembury to be searched. So, he assumed it must be because he's a Black man walking through one of the richest neighborhoods on the planet.

Bembury asked for permission to film the police officers and they agreed. "So, I'm in fucking Beverly Hills and being searched for shopping at the store I work for and, uh, just being black," he says to the camera.

Then, then the officer says he's making things, "completely different."

The officers eventually let Bembury go and left him with a warning: "Next time, don't change the narrative like that."

See on Instagram

But did he change the narrative? In a world where Black people are treated with greater suspicion by law enforcement, isn't it safe to assume that racial profiling could be why they're performing an unnecessary stop and frisk?

Would a white man in a tie-dyed shirt and a Versace bag suffer the same humiliation?

The Beverly Hills PD released bodycam footage of the incident, citing heavy traffic in the area for the officer's actions, adding that "Beverly Hills, unfortunately, has a lot of pedestrian accidents and traffic violations."

However, that doesn't explain why Bembury was frisked. Protecting someone from being the victim of a traffic accident has nothing to do with assuming they are holding a weapon.

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Two unnamed black men were filmed being led out of a Starbucks location by six Philadelphia police officers on April 12. At the time of this post, the video had already been viewed more than 10 million times.

— (@)

The city's police commissioner initially defended the arrest, which reportedly came after a local Starbucks manager called in a complaint. Meanwhile, outrage over the incident grew — and so did pressure on Starbucks to address what increasingly is being labeled a case of racial bias.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney chimed in, saying, "I am heartbroken to see Philadelphia in the headlines for an incident that — at least based on what we know at this point — appears to exemplify what racial discrimination looks like in 2018."

After issuing three poorly received press releases, Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson gave his first public interview about the incident to "Good Morning America" on Monday, April 16.

He apologized and offered to meet with the men directly to find a solution.

It turns out, Johnson's most recent apology was every bit as direct and specific as it should have been — and other public figures should take note.

"The circumstances surrounding the incident and the outcome in our store on Thursday were reprehensible. They were wrong," Johnson said. "And for that I personally apologize to the two gentlemen that were visiting our store."

"It's my responsibility to understand what happened and what led to that and to ensure that we fix it," he said.

Johnson added that Starbucks would update its training practices at its more than 28,000 locations, including what he described as "unconscious bias" in terms of how employees and managers treat people of different races and backgrounds. He reiterated that the company has an explicit policy against racial profiling.

"What happened to those two gentlemen was wrong," Johnson said. "We will hold ourselves accountable."

A "good apology" alone doesn't fix the problem, but it helps. Even news anchors who interviewed Johnson agreed, with George Stephanopoulos commenting, "This guy did not hedge. He took full responsibility."

"We rarely see that from a CEO," co-anchor Robin Roberts added. "He wasn't mincing words at all."

— (@)

An injustice was committed, and that can't be forgotten. But Johnson's offer to meet with the two men is a step forward.

He said he'd like to meet face-to-face with the two men so that he can apologize directly.

"I'd like to invite them to join me in finding a constructive way to resolve this issue," he said.

It still remains to be seen exactly how this situation resolves (and a subsequent incident in Los Angeles that apparently took place on the same day as Johnson's interview doesn't bode well). After all, the two men in question still haven't used their opportunity to have their voices heard.

Still, it's clear that there is power in people speaking out and applying pressure on business and political leaders to provide accountability and solutions when an injustice needs to be corrected.

How everyday moments can become intolerable.

I usually work from a café. Every morning, between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., you’ll find me there, often writing, sometimes reading. I can usually walk, but sometimes I drive to the ones that are a little far. I park my car, walk in, drop my bag on an empty chair, and get in line for a cup of coffee. This is a routine.

About a year ago, I was in a coffee shop, writing.

Photo via iStock.

The place had a chair against the wall with small square individual table in front. I liked to sit there because I could sit upright and focus, instead of lounging on one of the comfy chairs.

Since I was a regular customer, a lot of the staff members knew me by face and some of them by name. When I arrived, I set my computer on a table and went to the counter to order a cup of coffee. The barista took my money and said, “You are Abdullah, right?”

“No, I am not.”

“Oh, sorry. You do look like Abdullah, the guy from Saudi.”

“OK, but I am Deepak, the guy from India.”

“I’ll try to remember that. Sorry.”

“No problem,” I said.

I got my coffee and sat down.

I noticed people’s eyes skipping around me as they passed by or waited in line.

Then I saw the person sitting on my left reading the news on his laptop. His computer screen had a picture of the couple who had killed 14 people in San Bernardino. It was a day after the shooting had taken place.

I looked at it for a few seconds and then went back to writing. I didn’t want to think much of it, but I looked at it again and then looked around. There was a woman sitting to my right wearing a hijab. She hadn’t been there when I came into the coffee shop. Somehow, I hadn’t noticed. She was busily chatting in English on her phone and typing on her laptop at the same time. Her white veil covered her head but not her face. Her long-sleeved top covered her arms and wrists. This was not the first time I had seen a hijabi girl in the coffee shop, but I didn’t remember when the last time had been. I looked at her from the corner of my eyes and then shifted to the picture on the laptop to my left. Tashfeen Malik, the female shooter, didn’t look very different from the lady sitting next to me. I thought that might be what people were looking at.

It dawned on me that I could be confused for someone who looked like Syed Farook, the male accomplice. There was an early morning rush, and there were more people in line now. A lot of them were looking at their phones and also looking at me. At least that is what I thought.

I was not able to focus on my work anymore. I was fidgeting.

Photo via iStock.

The lady next to me was still talking and typing. It seemed to me the more I tried to avoid attention, the more conspicuous I was getting.

“She’s not with me,” I wanted to say to them. “I’ve never seen her before!” Then I thought even if she moved away from me, the folks in the coffee shop could still think of me what they might have been thinking of her. A part of me thought that I was overreacting, but then I remembered all those times working a day job in an electronics store, when so many Americans asked me if I was from Syria or Iraq.

All kinds of thoughts were brewing up in my head as I sat staring at my computer, my fingers frozen.

I was irritated at the people looking at us. I wanted to move to a different spot, but all the seats were taken. The only choice was to get up and leave. Or just sit there and let people stare at me. I left. Later, I thought to myself that I was being worried for no reason. It was all in my head.

In February 2017, as I read the news in another coffee shop, the big story was about two Indians enjoying a few drinks at a bar in Kansas. Reports say that a prejudiced man shot them and killed one of them. They didn’t look much different from me — in fact, they looked exactly like me. Now their parents are mourning back in India. I could have been one of those men.

Photo via iStock.

I thought of my time at the coffee shop a year ago — how I felt threatened and uncomfortable. I can only imagine how Muslims are feeling now that Trump is president.

I came home and held my wife and my daughter and felt happy and lucky to be together and alive. And then I thought about the most powerful men in America who seem to be waging war on everyone who resembles me.

This story first appeared on Latterly and is reprinted here with permission.

In the 1960s, New York City Police Commissioner Michael J. Murphy enacted a series of policies that put Harlem under what was effectively a police state.

It was the dawn of the modern civil rights movement, and racial tensions were high. Murphy promised to be tough on "racial extremists" and even refused several times to listen to the pleas of civil rights groups who wanted an investigation into police brutality.

The Harlem riot of 1964. Photo via Dick DeMarsico/New York World Telegraph & Sun/Wikimedia Commons.

On July 16, 1964, New York Police Department officer Thomas Gilligan shot and killed a black teenager named James Powell on the Upper East Side. Hundreds protested in the streets, sparking the infamous Harlem riot.

The officer was investigated and then cleared of any wrongdoing.

"In our estimation this is a crime problem and not a social problem," said Commissioner Murphy.

In a 1964 interview, civil rights leader Malcolm X spoke out against Commissioner Murphy.

He said Muphy's policies and rhetoric had led to a deep distrust between the black community and the NYPD, as well as an increase in violence.

Shaun King, senior justice writer for the New York Daily News and a leader in the Black Lives Matter movement, recently tweeted a video of that interview.

— (@)

King noted that 52 years later, Malcolm X's words are as "shockingly relevant" today as when they were first spoken.

GIF via YouTube.

"This gives the police the impression that they can then go and brutalize the Negroes or suppress the Negroes or even frighten the Negroes," Malcolm X continues in the interview.

"Whenever something happens, 20 police cars converge on one area."

While the civil rights movement of the '60s made great progress for racial equality, all you need to do is turn on the news to see that the distrust between the black community and police is still prevalent.

Hundreds of protestors are marching through the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina, in response to the police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott, a black man who police say was armed, though his family disputes that claim. The story is still developing.

Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

That's only the most recent example. In fact, it's only the most recent example in Charlotte, North Carolina. There have been dozens of similar stories from communities across the country over the past few years — stories of unarmed black men and women being brutalized or killed by the cops sworn to keep their communities safe.

You can see a palpable anger on the streets of Charlotte just as you could see it in the streets of Baton Rouge, Dallas, Tulsa, St. Paul, Chicago, Seattle, Baltimore, New York, Boston, Salt Lake City, and more. It's in Colin Kaepernick's national anthem protest, and in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Malcolm X's words are especially worth remembering as presidential candidate Donald Trump has proposed a stop-and-frisk policy that certainly would not help matters.

In response to a question about violence in black communities, the Republican presidential nominee recently said that he would enact a wide-reaching version of the policy known as stop-and-frisk, which empowers police officers to search virtually anyone they find suspicious.

"I would do stop-and-frisk," Trump said. "I think you have to. We did it in New York, it worked incredibly well."

No, it didn't. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images.

While Trump later clarified that he only meant Chicago, that doesn't stop his proposal from being deeply troubling.

Despite Trump's claim to the contrary, all evidence shows that stop-and-frisk didn't work in New York City.

Studies show that the vast majority of individuals stopped by the police under stop-and-frisk were black and Latino, despite the fact that white people were more likely to be carrying weapons or drugs. So all the policy accomplished was to deepen the existing distrust between police and minority communities.

Like Murphy in 1964, Trump has a poor grasp of the facts when it comes to addressing issues of race relations and crime — whether he's tweeting false crime statistics, threatening to fight Black Lives Matter protesters, or saying things like this:

GIF via CBS News/YouTube.

We need to get better, not worse. Enacting a policy rooted in racism — especially without proposing any policies to counter the systemic racial bias that the Justice Department continues to uncover in police departments across the country — that continues to treat the black community as dangerous-until-proven-otherwise is categorically worse.

It's scary to think that Malcolm X's words from half a century ago can still be applied to society today.

It's even more remarkable that a potential world leader is proposing policies and spouting rhetoric in 2016 that would feel right at home in 1964.

It shows that while we've come a long way, not nearly enough has changed — and if we continue to ignore the mistakes of the past, we will surely be doomed to repeat them.

Click here to make sure you're ready to cast a ballot on Nov. 8, 2016.

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This new tech can stop crimes before they happen, and that's terrifying.

Imagine you're all alone in a low-lit parking lot when a big, white robot rolls up to you and offers its protection.

Congratulations: You just met the Knightscope K5, the latest in pre-crime technology!

Weirder things have happened, right? I mean, not many weirder things, but definitely some weirder things. GIF via Knightscope/YouTube.

It might look like the lovechild of R2-D2 and a Dalek, but the K5 is actually the world's first "autonomous data machine." (At least according to the press materials.)

What this actually means is that it roves around parking lots in Silicon Valley using facial recognition software to identify potential criminals, broadcasting massive amounts of information back to the company's private data center, and generally policing through (admittedly adorable) intimidation.

And what's more, this shiny robot cop can be rented out for as low as $6.25 an hour.

All in a day's work. GIF from "Robocop."

Are you feeling like you're living in the future yet? 'Cause the K5 ain't the only tech that allegedly stops crime before it happens.

Back in 2008, the Department of Homeland Security created the Fast Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST. Originally known as Project Hostile Intent (can't imagine why they changed it?), this data-crunching program uses physiological and behavioral patterns to identify individuals with potential to commit violent crimes.

And in September 2015, Hitachi released its fancy new Predictive Crime Analytics, which uses thousands of different factors from weather patterns to word usage in social media posts to identify when and where the next crime could happen.

"We're trying to provide tools for public safety so that [law enforcement is] armed with more information on who's more likely to commit a crime," explained Darrin Lipscomb, one of the creators of this crime-monitoring technology, in a Fast Company article.

He also said, "A human just can't handle when you get to the tens or hundreds of variables that could impact crime."

Sounds an awful lot like a certain Spielberg action movie starring a pre-couch-jumping Tom Cruise.

Speaking of curious behavioral patterns... GIF from "Minority Report."

So what are we waiting for? Let's use all this awesome new technology to put a stop to crime before it starts!

Except ... it's not "crime" if it hasn't happened, is it? You can't arrest someone for trying every car door in the parking lot, even if you do feel pretty confident that they're looking for an open one so they can search inside for things to steal.

And even then: How can you tell the difference between a thief, a homeless person looking for a place to sleep, or someone who just got confused about which car was theirs?

GIF from "Robocop."

Besides: What if the algorithms used in this pre-crime technology are just as biased as human behavior?

Numbers don't lie. But numbers also exist within a context, which means the bigger picture might not be as black and white as you'd think.

Consider the stop-and-frisk policies that currently exist in cities like New York or the TSA screening process at the airport. Those in favor might argue that if black and Muslim Americans are more likely to commit violent crimes, then it makes sense to treat them with extra caution. Those opposed would call that racial profiling.

As for the supposedly objective predictive robot cops? Based on the data available to them, they'd probably rule in favor of racial profiling.

Author/blogger Cory Doctorow explains this problem pretty succinctly:

"The data used to train the algorithm comes from the outcomes of the biased police activity. If the police are stop-and-frisking brown people, then all the weapons and drugs they find will come from brown people. Feed that to an algorithm and ask it where the police should concentrate their energies, and it will dispatch those cops to the same neighborhoods where they've always focused their energy, but this time with a computer-generated racist facewash that lets them argue that they're free from bias."

See how quickly this spirals downward? GIF from "Robocop."

Pre-crime measures might make us feel safer. But they could lead to some even scarier scenarios.

By trying to stop crimes before they happen, we actually end up causing more crime. Just look at all the wonderful work that law enforcement agencies have already done by inadvertently creating terrorists and freely distributing child pornography.

The threat of surveillance from robots and data analysts might stop a handful of crimes, but it also opens up a bigger can of worms about what, exactly, a crime entails.

Because if you think you have "nothing to hide," well, tell that to the disproportionate number of black people imprisoned for marijuana or any of the men who've been arrested in the last few years for consensual sex with another man. (And remember that not too long ago, interracial sex was illegal, too.)

Do you really want these guys showing up at your house when you're trying to get it on? GIF from "Doctor Who."

Hell, if you've ever faked a sick day or purchased a lobster of a certain size, you've committed a felony.

The truth is, we've all committed crimes. And we've probably done it more often than we realized.

Don't get me wrong. It's certainly exciting to see people use these innovative new technologies to make the world safer. But there are others ways to stop crime before it starts without infringing on our civil rights.

For starters, we can fix the broken laws still on the books and create communities that care instead of cultivating fear. There'd be a lot less crime if we just looked after each other.

You won't believe what this guy does in his spare time.

An inside look at the seedy underbelly of hate, right here in the U.S. of A.

[00:40] He mentions a case of “racial profiling” that I think we can all live with.

[1:30] He casually references that time when the swastika went out of style.

[1:40] He makes the case for segregation.

[2:16] He lets you know exactly how he feels about immigration.

[2:48] He gives us a very interesting [read: bonkers] take on immigration history.

[3:00] He takes a shot ... at the Constitution.

[3:36] He gives us an estimation of the undocumented population completely unburdened by fact.

racial profiling

Beverly Hills police frisked Versace executive Salehe Bembury for holding one of his company's own bags

2 black men were unjustly handcuffed at Starbucks. Now, they're meeting with the CEO.

They were just waiting to start a business meeting. Now their story is fueling a movement that could permanently change corporate culture.

It turns out, Johnson's most recent apology was every bit as direct and specific as it should have been — and other public figures should take note.

An injustice was committed, and that can't be forgotten. But Johnson's offer to meet with the two men is a step forward.

His uncomfortable experience in a coffee shop tells us a lot about race in America.

How everyday moments can become intolerable.

About a year ago, I was in a coffee shop, writing.

I noticed people’s eyes skipping around me as they passed by or waited in line.

I was not able to focus on my work anymore. I was fidgeting.

All kinds of thoughts were brewing up in my head as I sat staring at my computer, my fingers frozen.

I thought of my time at the coffee shop a year ago — how I felt threatened and uncomfortable. I can only imagine how Muslims are feeling now that Trump is president.

An interview Malcolm X gave in 1964 is shockingly relevant in 2016.

In the 1960s, New York City Police Commissioner Michael J. Murphy enacted a series of policies that put Harlem under what was effectively a police state.

In a 1964 interview, civil rights leader Malcolm X spoke out against Commissioner Murphy.

King noted that 52 years later, Malcolm X's words are as "shockingly relevant" today as when they were first spoken.

While the civil rights movement of the '60s made great progress for racial equality, all you need to do is turn on the news to see that the distrust between the black community and police is still prevalent.

Malcolm X's words are especially worth remembering as presidential candidate Donald Trump has proposed a stop-and-frisk policy that certainly would not help matters.

Despite Trump's claim to the contrary, all evidence shows that stop-and-frisk didn't work in New York City.

It's scary to think that Malcolm X's words from half a century ago can still be applied to society today.

This new tech can stop crimes before they happen, and that's terrifying.

Imagine you're all alone in a low-lit parking lot when a big, white robot rolls up to you and offers its protection.

It might look like the lovechild of R2-D2 and a Dalek, but the K5 is actually the world's first "autonomous data machine." (At least according to the press materials.)

Are you feeling like you're living in the future yet? 'Cause the K5 ain't the only tech that allegedly stops crime before it happens.

So what are we waiting for? Let's use all this awesome new technology to put a stop to crime before it starts!

Besides: What if the algorithms used in this pre-crime technology are just as biased as human behavior?

Pre-crime measures might make us feel safer. But they could lead to some even scarier scenarios.

Hell, if you've ever faked a sick day or purchased a lobster of a certain size, you've committed a felony.

You won't believe what this guy does in his spare time.

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