Or was it the fact that she’s black? Patricia had no answer. Her face showed a mixture of embarrassment, defensiveness, and the dawning realization that she had just destroyed her husband’s career. Bennett turned to Jennifer, the sales associate who had sided with Officer Patterson without question. And you, when the officer told you I was disturbing the peace, you immediately agreed without asking me a single question.
You told me to leave. You supported him arresting a customer in your store based on absolutely nothing. Jennifer’s voice came out or as a whisper. Ms. Bennett, I didn’t know it was you. If I had known you were the owner “If you had known I was the owner, you would have treated me differently?”
Bennett interrupted. “But because you thought I was just a black customer, you assumed the racist cop was right and I was wrong. That’s exactly the problem, Jennifer. You made a choice based on what you saw, and what you saw was my skin color.” Bennett turned to Peter, her voice firm and clear.
“Jennifer is fired, effective immediately. She can collect her belongings and leave.” Jennifer started to protest, but Peter held up his hand. “Ms. Bennett is right. You supported false accusations against a customer based on racial bias.
You’re terminated. Leave now.” Jennifer grabbed her purse from behind the counter and walked out of the boutique with tears streaming down her face, knowing that video of this incident was already being recorded and would follow her for the rest of her life. Officer Patterson tried one more time to apologize. “Ms. Bennett, I made a serious error in judgment.
If we could just discuss this.” Bennett’s eyes were cold as she looked at him. “You humiliated me in my own business. You handcuffed me in front of my customers and employees. You treated me like a criminal for shopping while black in a store I built with my own hands.
Your apology means absolutely nothing. You and your wife are going to answer for this.” Patterson opened his mouth to respond, but another police officer walked through the boutique door having been called as backup when Patterson radioed that he was making an arrest. The new officer looked around at the scene with confusion, clearly not understanding why Patterson was standing there apologizing instead of bringing in a suspect. Bennett addressed the new officer directly.
“Your colleague just falsely arrested me, the owner of this business, based on a racist phone call from his wife. I’m filing a formal complaint with your department and a federal civil rights lawsuit. Everything that happened here was caught on security cameras and multiple customer phones.” The backup officer looked at Patterson with an expression that made it clear he understood his colleague had just made a career-ending mistake. Peter spoke up, his voice firm with authority.
