Shopping While Black- A case for the Indegent Litigant

by Staff Writer

Dear Indigent litigant: I was in a San Francisco Walgreen's. The employees followed me around. I put my things down and left. The employees surrounded me and pushed me to the back room. I was searched. When they found nothing one of their employees got batteries from the floor said I damaged store property. One called me a racial slur and tried to stab me with an envelope opener. I left the property called the police and got arrested for theft. The police said I was not welcomed back there. What should I do?

Sincerely, Mr. Shopping while Black.

Dear Mr. Black: it is my opinion that in this case I would have done the following. First I would have made the police department charge me with the petty theft. I would have demanded a jury trial (invoking the Duran test -fair racial cross section) and forced the police to show proof that I had actually taken any property by ordering the public defender to subpoena copies of all videotapes of surveillance security from the store. I also would have made the District Attorney press charges against the employees for assault-240pc, battery-242pc, False imprisonment-236pc, lying to a police officer, filing a false police report148.5pc. And a few other charges to make it more interesting. I would have also notified the corporate office of the incident and pressed charges against the store "entity" for violations of my civil rights. (There are federal criminal charges for civil rights violations). I would do this only as a last resort if the store refused to remedy me for the actions of their employees.

Sincerely,

I.L