Thousands Protest Shoplifting Death

D E A R B O R N, Mich. -- Some shoppers at Fairlane Town Center saythey don’t doubt allegations that a man who died nearby during astruggle with security guards was targeted because he was black.They say they know because of years of personal experience.

“It’s something about Dearborn,” said Detroit resident PatreceDates, 29. “I don’t feel comfortable in Dearborn.”

Dates, who is black, said mall security guards often follow heras she shops.

Guards Accused Girl of Stealing

Thousands of protesters led by the Rev. Al Sharpton ralliedWednesday outside the Fairlane Town Center Lord & Taylor storewhere Frederick Finley died.

No charges have been filed in the June 22 death. The 32-year-oldwas in the store with friends and family when surveillance camerasallegedly recorded some members of the group shoplifting. Securityguards accused Finley’s 11-year-old stepdaughter of stealing a $4bracelet.

The guards followed the group to the parking lot and tried todetain Finley’s stepdaughter and a family friend, police said.Finley punched one of the guards before he was put in a choke hold,according to the police report. Two autopsies showed Finley died ofasphyxia due to suffocation.

The protesters chanted “No justice, no profits, no justice, nopeace” in a parking lot outside the store in this Detroit suburb.

Police Inspector Dan Wach today estimated the number ofprotesters at somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000, probably closerto 7,000. Earlier estimates had put the crowd at 10,000.

Racial Profiling a ‘Major Problem’

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan routinely fieldscomplaints by minority shoppers who say they were subjected tounreasonable force and detention in area stores simply because oftheir race, the agency’s legal director said Wednesday.

“It’s a major problem in the malls or suburbs, where African-Americans feel they’re suspect the minute they walk into a store,”Michael J. Steinberg said. “Every once in a while, there’s ahigh-profile case like this one which raises awareness of theproblem.”

Fairlane mall shopper Rhodia Gill, 31, of Detroit said caseswhere black shoppers are scrutinized are not isolated to Dearborn.She said the guards used excessive force on Finley.

“He didn’t deserve to die in the parking lot,” Gill said.

About 0.4 percent of Dearborn’s 89,286 residents were black,according to the 1990 U.S. Census. A large proportion of Fairlane’scustomers are black, many coming from mostly black Detroit.

Whites Treated Differently?

At least some of the Lord & Taylor guards who were involved areblack. The activists who organized Wednesday’s protest accused thestore of having black security workers scrutinize minority shoppersto avoid the appearance of discrimination or racial profiling.

Lord & Taylor spokeswoman LaVelle Olexa declined to discuss thedeath or the protest, citing an ongoing police investigation and a$600 million lawsuit by the man’s family against the store’sparent, May Department Stores Co.

Sharpton said the case would not have resulted in death had theshoplifter been white.

Most protesters agreed.

“I think if he would have been a white man or a man of adifferent culture, they would have handled the situation better,”said 28-year-old Katrina Anderson of Detroit, who is black. “It’sjust sad about what they did to him in front of his kids and hisfamily.”

‘We Kill for $4’

The protesters, almost all of whom were black, cheered as Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., told the crowd Finley’s death was anextreme example of a constant problem.

“We’re doing out here today what we should have been doing along time ago,” Conyers said.

Many people carried signs with messages such as “Racism isalive and well. We kill for $4 in Michigan,” and “God is watchingyou.”

Police said there were no arrests during the rally.

The ACLU was “certainly concerned about the excessive forceused” against Finley, Steinberg said.

Steinberg was not immediately aware of any such complaintsrelating to Fairlane or its Lord & Taylor store before Finley’sdeath.

Demanding Arrests

During Wednesday’s protest, organizers promised to rally againJuly 17 at the Detroit federal courthouse. Speakers including theRev. Horace Sheffield, of Detroit, and actor and activist DickGregory also called on the U.S. government to investigate Finley’sdeath.

The demand is among three others: the arrest of the securityguards accused of killing Finley, settlement of the Finley family’slawsuit against Lord & Taylor and disclosure of the securityguards’ jurisdiction and when they may use force.

“It seems that you can go to jail for protesting in Dearborn,but you can’t go to jail for murder,” Sharpton said at a newsconference before the protest. “I asked the chief of police, if Ilay down in front of Lord & Taylor tonight, would he arrest me. Hesaid, ‘Absolutely.’ But a man can be choked to death in front ofLord & Taylor, and we’re waiting on what?”

Wayne County assistant prosecutor Kevin Simowski said Wednesdaythat prosecutors still were reviewing the matter.