To: Ray Kelly, NYPD Commissioner and Mark Lee, Chief Executive Officer

Shopping while Black is not a crime

Trayon Christian, a 19-year-old Black engineering student from Queens, was arrested after purchasing a designer belt at Barneys New York, a luxury department store. With several forms of identification matching his debit card and his receipt in hand, Trayon was arrested, handcuffed, and locked in a jail cell by undercover NYPD officers. Apparently, he isn't the only one; close to 50 others have been arrested outside the same store.

Enough is enough. Shopping while Black is not a crime. We urge the NYPD to conduct a full investigation into these arrests.

Why is this important?

Black folks are being routinely stopped outside of Barneys NY by NYPD officers after making an expensive purchase at the luxury department store in New York City. The NYPD has become notorious for targeting Black and Latino residents — subjecting our communities to thousands of illegal and discriminatory stops, searches, and frisks each day that lead to unlawful arrests, constant harassment, and in some cases, serious injury or death.

Please join us in urging NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to conduct a full investigation of the arrests made outside of Barneys and to release information about the racial breakdown of suspects arrested, the number of people actually charged, and details about Barneys' role in these incidents.