A star of HBO’s “Treme” on Wednesday filed a federal class action suit against Macy’s saying he was cuffed by cops at the flagship Herald Square store after buying a pricey watch for his mom — because he is black.
Rob Brown, 29, of Brooklyn, who also starred with Sean Connery in 2000’s “Finding Forrester,” filed the Manhattan federal suit, claiming he was unlawfully detained at the store in June while buying his mom a fancy $1,300 Movado watch as a graduation present.
“Macy’s — self-proclaimed ‘America’s best-loved department store’ — is at it again,” says the new suit, referring to a $600,000 settlement it had to shell out in 2005 after the state filed a lawsuit alleging the chain’s New York stores engaged in racial profiling.
Brown filed a similar federal class action suit on Wednesday against the NYPD, alleging “shop and frisk” tactics by cops unfairly target minority shoppers.
The new suits replace a lawsuit Brown filed last month against both Macy’s and the NYPD.
Brown claims that after he bought the timepiece at the 34th St. flagship and went looking to buy a pair of sunglasses he was stopped in the middle of the store by three white men who he believes were NYPD cops.
He claims the men began to “publicly and falsely” accuse him of committing credit card fraud.
He also says he was then cuffed and paraded around the store “like an already convicted common criminal.”
Brown says he was then thrown into a holding cell and berated for an hour. When cops realized who he was, Brown says he was released. Brown also claims cops then tried to whitewash the situation by offering to give him a police escort to his mom’s graduation.
Macy’s issued a statement saying, “We cannot comment on pending litigation. We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind, including racial profiling.”