Posted on 01/23/2015 1:29:57 PM PST by BenLurkin
A woman is suing Target, alleging her son committed suicide after being forced to take part in a humiliating disciplinary event in front of co-workers and customers at the Pasadena store where he worked as a cashier.
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Her son jumped to his death from the roof of the Courtyard Marriott in Monrovia on July 18, three days after he was required by Target management to take part in what the suit calls a walk of shame.
According to the complaint, police and store security met Graham Gentles immediately as he arrived for work, and, at the direction of two members of store management, was handcuffed and led before other store employees to an office.
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He was questioned in the office, then later taken to the police station, according to the lawsuit. However, he was later released and never charged with any crime, according to the complaint.
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The walk of shame is a Target policy to purposely cause shame, embarrassment and emotional distress to any Target employee who is suspected of stealing from Target, the suit states. The policy consists of employees being arrested and paraded in handcuffs through the Target store in full view of co-workers and customers.
(Excerpt) Read more at losangeles.cbslocal.com ...
if you wanna fire someone... fire them...
this is textbook creation of a hostile work environment..
it is also textbook harassment...
the people who not only created this but enforced it need to be canned without prejudice, and have their firings announced in the news media, so that the chance of them ever being a manager are zero...
And they ridicule people who commit suicide who have not any hope for a life.
I can not see something like this leading to suicide but it is one dam good reason why people should be treated as innocent until proven guilty which many people don`t believe in until it happens to them.
What EVER
Not too many manning the cash registers there with M.B.A.s
And it’s really cheap to just dump on the person involved and wave everyone else right by in the skating lane. Life’s interactions are more complex than this. And the Lord abhors causing someone to stumble.
I don’t shop at Target but I suspect that they have multiple cameras overseeing the registers and stocking areas. Most retailers confront them with the tapes and force them to resign with a clause requiring the employee to waive any legal action.
He had Aspergers then his action of taking his own life makes sense. With that I would not consider the suicide as any admission of guilt whatsoever. With Aspergers can come some dangerous to the patient issues. Si Robertson of Duck Dynasty has an adult son with it. As a kid his son had a very rough go of it. His son is now career Army.
Any person being arrested has the right to know the charges at the time of arrest. Someone best have ironclad proof the man broke the law. If not his family will be receiving a lot of money.
I've worked in retail before. The manager did not do his disciplining of employees, or handling of shoplifters, thieves, etc in front of others except perhaps one witness. The March of Shame if it in fact exist is a stupid idea. Wait until after conviction then post the picture in the employee lounge instead. It still achieves the end goal and due process of law is served first.
On the other hand, If there wasnt sufficient probable cause to prosecute then the whole handcuffing thing is simple assault
This is an example of a truly bad business practice, and I’m surprised that they haven’t had a whopper of a lawsuit before now.
Companies have been sued not only for giving bad letters of recommendation, but even for giving good letters that their former employee thought were not good enough.
In a legal environment like that, you *do not* humiliate an employee for *any* reason. There must be a disciplinary paper trail, and *any* employee terminations must be scrutinized by the legal staff before being executed.
“He would routinely throw beer into the dumpster at the back of the store and then various friends of his would come collect it.
I also knew a girl who worked at K&B drug store as a cashier who would routinely let friends come in and shop, and then she would ring them up for a couple dollars when the actual amount of items purchased was far higher.
I knew a manager of Little Caesars Pizza who would sell late night orders without ever ringing them up and pocket the cash.”
I’m well aware of all these types of thefts. You realize these can be caught on both camera and cash register receipts.
That is why target, wal mart has cameras all over the cash register area. They also have it to catch credit card/check fraud. This is something they’d have to catch over time. If they had this kid at the police station they’d have a mountain of evidence proving it, not just one one thing.
Trust me I know all the stop lifting tricks. I have told stores how to stop it. I’m having to keep up on it because they get more and more creative on it.
“Mom is going to look pretty foolish if it comes out Target had solid evidence the kid was stealing, let him off, tried to teach him not to steal, but also didnt jeopardize the possibility of future employment.”
True, but I don’t think it would have much affect on the (high) odds of her taking Target to the cleaners.
Ive often wonder how those kids got over their humiliation.
It was just a fun way of teaching us that there were consequences, the board with holes in it was for the serious crimes.
When the police are involved and a mans reputation is at stake it is a different story.
I would like to have more information on this matter to be honest.
This would be an interesting case to be a juror on.
“This would be an interesting case to be a juror on.”
No doubt but we’d both be excluded now that we’ve read about it.
Probable cause isnt needed for arrest.
Reasonable suspicion is.
You are right, probable cause is for the issue of a warrant which is needed for search or seizure but is done every day with out one due to the fear of the police.
All good morality has its home in love. Selfishness/hate is the worldly, demonic distortion of this.
The manager came up and looked at the register and was perplexed as well and said let's run the card again. I said No you are going to have to first prove to me the transaction was canceled first I can't be hit twice because I can't cover it in my account. The register would not show that information it seemed.
The manager was gone about 15 minutes to look at their system in the meantime I was going to the ATM a few feet away and running my balance every few minutes and it showed no hit on my balance. Finally she came back with the tape receipt that showed transaction had been canceled.
I told her now we know both of us are honest. I could have walked out of here with $400 plus in items and I would not have paid for and only me insisting on a receipt saved your store a $400 loss. In other words the cashier wrongfully assumed the transaction went through until I insisted on a receipt. Some of these stores loss is their own darn equipment so complicated it takes a computer science major to get the check outs and inventory system functional. They re rang all the items, I used my card again and no problem.
That said I once worked as a clerk in a walk-in gas/food store. We usually had one person per shift and we had to count how many packs of cigarettes were in inventory manually each shift against the number sold. We also had to place money handed us on top of the till, count the change due our customer back from the amount due to the amount received from customer, and then if accepted place the money in the till. We had very few shortages that way. It stopped fraud and false accusations as well. What I really loved was the ones with $5 bills who said Oh I gave you a $50 after I closed the till. My till did not have $50's. We dropped them in the safe and it took a minute or so to put it in the envelope and mark it then log it on paper LOL.
I love it when I hear stories like that.
The very system wal mart created backfires. Their computer knows how much is in the store right down to the last pack of gum. It even knows when it’s time to reorder something and tells the main office.
Then once in a while this crap happens. Just blows me away.
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