From [HERE] Six weeks after a series of racial-profiling allegations from Black and Latino shoppers, a coalition of high-end retailers and civil rights leaders came up with a so called “bill of rights” to protect non-white customers from “shop-and-frisk” practices or racial targeting by the NYPD in the white owned and controlled stores [more on white collective power HERE]. 

The list of "rights" was released to the media after getting final approval Monday morning at a meeting that included the Rev. Al Sharpton and other civil rights advocates and executives from Barneys, Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Lord & Taylor and other department stores. The NYPD did not participate.

The one-page bill of rights will be displayed in stores such as Barneys, Macy’s, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, and the Gap, and it will include phone numbers for the New York City Commission on Human Rights, the state Division of Human Rights, and the manager of each store that posts it.

The document “strictly prohibits unreasonable searches and/or the profiling of customers by any employee,” and requires that a person should be detained only if an employee “has reasonable grounds” to believe that the person was in criminal possession of “an anti-security item” or “was committing or attempting to commit shoplifting on the premises.”

[In other words, it informs you of rights you already have and provides information already available to the public. It confers no legally enforceable rights on the shopper [victim] and does not provide any cause of action to sue for any violation or breach of the "bill of rights." It provides no additional or new remedy that did not already exist. There is no penalty or fine assessed against the store or NYPD. It is meaningless. Who's the mack? 

The Black revolutionary Steve Cokely (video below) said "to never play for your own sandwich" and he made reference to the old McDonald's commercial featuring Michael Jordan and Larry Bird. In it, Jordan is sitting in a gym with a bag of food. Larry Bird, a white man, asks 'can I play you for your sandwich?' and Jordan agrees. Then they play one on one. What does Jordan get if he wins? Nothing. That is 'Whitenology' - making you play for your own sandwich.

Here, Black people [via Al Sharpton] are playing for their own sandwich; allegedly getting some respect from Macy's and other white retailers? Respect is something you can only give to yourself! Macy's cannot give Black people respect. According to Neely Fuller "there is only one form of respect - it is self respect - the respect that one gives to ones self, refusing to lie to oneself. Being honest with yourself about reality. It is deception (white supremacy/racism) for white people to give you something (respect) that you already have. Like singing songs or holding hands - posting signs inside stores will have absolutely nothing to do with addressing the challenges and conditions of 'the open warfare continuously being waged against the non-white collective. [MORE] Stop supporting white supremacy.'] 

At a news conference Monday, the Rev. Mr. Sharpton said he hopes the signs will go up this week.

Retailers in New York City have been under rising pressure from civil rights groups, such as the National Action Network, after three customers filed suit against Barneys and Macy’s, accusing the stores of singling them out for suspicion because they are black or Hispanic.

The New York attorney general’s office and the city’s Human Rights Commission are conducting parallel investigations into the allegations and, more broadly, into the stores' security practices, The New York Times reported Monday.

Barneys and Macy’s have denied engaging in racial profiling, saying that the New York Police Department was at fault. However, an NYPD spokesman maintains that detectives involved in the incidents were responding to information given to them by the department stores' employees, the New York Daily News reported in late October.

The new articulation of customers' rights is a step in the right direction, Sharpton said Monday, but it doesn’t address the whole problem.

“The policies in place are not adequate,” agreed Scott Stringer, the Manhattan borough president and the

city's comptroller-elect, who took part in meetings with store officials to craft the new customers’ bill of rights. “We have a lot more work to do,” Mr. Stringer said, according to The New York Times.

Sharpton and Stringer have asked to meet with incoming Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, according to media reports.

In November, HBO television actor Robert Brown filed suit against the NYPD and Macy’s after three men, whom Mr. Brown believes to be NYPD officers, stopped him in the middle of the store and accused him of credit-card fraud. 

"They cuff me, parade me around the store, all the while maintaining, 'we do this all the time, it's a fake card, you're going to go to jail,' " Brown said on Oct. 29 while recounting the incident on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360." The incident reportedly happened in June. 

The new customers’ bill of rights requires plainclothes officers to identify themselves when approaching shoppers. 

Brown came forward after a young black man, Trayon Christian, filed suit in mid-October against Barneys and the NYPD. Mr. Christian said he was stopped by police and briefly held after buying an expensive belt at Barneys New York last spring.

Kayla Phillips, who also was moved to come forward after hearing Christian’s story, told the New York Daily News that police surrounded her outside Barneys after she bought a $2,500 handbag using a debit card. According to reports, police let Ms. Phillips go after she presented identification along with her credit card.

Barneys publicly apologized for the two incidents and launched an internal review.

Macy’s spokesman Ed Goldberg said the company understands the gravity of Brown's accusations. The retailer supports the customers' bill of rights and “looks forward to welcoming everyone as a customer at Macy’s,” he told the New York Post. 

Brown’s lawyer is skeptical about steps the retailer has taken so far. 

“I think it’s a marketing ploy,” John Elefterakis said to The New York Times. “We don’t believe that this is a solution. We’re moving forward with our lawsuit" against Macy’s.