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 ...
I agree that the stupidity level (Target’s) is over the top, and I will never buy any stock in Target.
Thanks for the translations, lol!!!
Desperate? What no McDonalds?
“You only humiliate a person after it’s been proven that he’s committed a crime.”
Hmm, tell that to all the municipalities who publicize the latest “vice” arrest photos online, with names.
The manner raises concerns, and more concerns as details come out. It looks staged. Ever since the police got busted in civil court for perp walks, they have been very careful.
You’re welcome. I can translate Ghetto too.
Target doesn't determine the policy of the circumstances under which an arrest warrants restraint; that's entirely up to the police.
When Target called the police to arrest the suspect, they had either a plainclothes store detective or videotape of the suspect. They almost certainly also had him with stolen property on his person.
When he got to the office, they got him to sign an admission which, among other things, absolved them from any wrongful termination / false arrest charges, at which point they said: "OK, we're agreeable. You're fired. Goodbye."
Unless this woman gets a Stacey Anthony jury, she is going to get nothing, because unlike the bleeding heart liberals on this thread, agreeing to let the kid go without charging him was a good thing for him, and not any kind of indicator of "lack of evidence."
In future, I guess people think it would be better for Target to have put a conviction in this kid's jacket. Seriously? To whose benefit would that be?
Liberals: “Duh, HAZING is bad. But THIS is a great company policy!”
(Target is run by liberals.)
Yep, I know. I get my medicines from Target, and I must say that their surveillance systems are quite extensive.
You are under the watchful eye as soon as you pull into their lot much less go inside.
Thing is, I also know that such stores are under a constant threat from employee theft. For whatever reason, some employees feel entitled to steal form their employers, even though many offer significant discount to employees with regard to purchases.
I have seen that in both Target and Wal-mart that they have their own security personnel along with police personnel. Generally, their offices seem to be located away from the entrances of the stores. I assume that is to prevent those caught from making a break for the door easily.
Personally, I can understand why a store would arrest an employee caught stealing in front of all other employees so that they can clearly see what lies in store for them if they choose to do the same. It’s a deterrent, one would hope, but I bet some of them steal steal anyway.
If it were my store, I would look at it like I gave you employment, and this is how you repay me? I’d be pretty mad at employee thieves.
However, I do not think that one can say that Target, by way of its actions with regard to employee theft, causes this person to kill himself.
That is a big leap.
To me, the person that chooses to kill himself is the person ultimately responsible for that choice.
That being said, it would be a comfort to know that Target did have actual evidence of him stealing before arresting him at the store.
They have careful weasel wording... “arrested/booked on suspicion of...” and also get taken down promptly. Some are even more cautious since “shame sites” have arisen that do screen scrapes and then months later put up Google image search results, which has produced a push back of complaints about data that is both ephemeral and out of context.
It is a stupid policy. But something is very wrong in this country. Kids have become so fragile and hopeless that their lives have no value to them. Anything can send them over the edge. When I was a kid (seventies and early eighties) I never heard of anyone my age committing suicide.
Personally I think not knowing God has a lot to do with it.
Still, as my husband's grandmother told me a few years ago, as we get older we have to guard against hardness of the heart. We can't become so jaded that loss of life becomes an occasion to mock.
You are unfamiliar with case law.
How did you glean the information of what they had, by the way?
This has FZ’s hind end’s DNA all over it.
““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.”
However, the suit alleges that Graham Gentles’ involvement in a “verbal altercation” with another Target worker at a bar outside of work hours several months before the handcuffing incident may have prompted management to subject him to the “walk of shame.””
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I read though this article several times. Okay it looks as if this kid really didn’t steal anything. He got into it with another worker at a bar so that worker took revenge. Up until this, he was a good employee and even came early and never missed. He had Asperger’s so I don’t know how high or low functioning he was. Sometimes people with this are often hard to get along with. Are there any FReepers here who can give some insight as I am not very knowledgeable on Asperger’s?
I don’t know but I strongly suspect they wanted revenge on him because he was Asperger’s and this is how they got it. I could be wrong but that is what I suspect.
Complain about hard hearts and you get called a liberal. That is how robotic FR “conservatism” has gotten in all too many cases.
The only “details” I see are coming from the Plaintiffs Bar, which is no place to be looking for the truth.
All I remember is that I was once forced into a Cracker Barrel. It scarred me for life; I guess there was no Waffle House, Hardees, McDs in the vicinity!!!!
You are, as usual, presumptuous, and wrong.
And yes ma’am, forgetting about God is the very center of the problem. People’s lives fall into rationalized selfishness when they do.
Practice that in a mirror.
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