Lurker > SomeGuyUO

A black gym owner in Detroit said racial profiling led police in Grosse Pointe Woods to falsely accuse him of robbing a bank more than a year ago, and he's still fighting the smear on his reputation.

Mike Fox spoke to the Free Press an hour before his lawyers filed a lawsuit Friday in Wayne County Circuit Court, demanding damages from Grosse Pointe Woods police and its public safety director for sending a SWAT team to his fitness studio to make the arrest, then jailing him for 48 hours.

Yet, a lawyer for the east-side suburb of Detroit said that because the bank robbery was never solved, Fox must remain labeled "a person of interest," even though law-enforcement experts in facial identification could not confirm his identity as the robber..

Fox said he was standing at the counter of Detroit Thrive, his busy workout studio in Detroit just over a mile from Grosse Pointe Woods, in April 2018 when his stunned clients saw four officers surround him in riot gear, brandishing weapons and leading a German shepherd police dog, as shown on his firm's surveillance video.

It seems the Grosse Pointe Woods police got a tip that Fox might be a bad guy. A day earlier, a black man with a similar build robbed the Chemical Bank branch in Grosse Pointe Woods. Shortly after, the public safety department in the upscale Detroit suburb whose residents are 89.6 % white and 4.9% black, according to the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) released a description of the suspect: African-American male, 45-50 years of age, approx. 6(-foot) tall and 220-230 lbs.

Fox is 44 years old, 5-foot-11 and 260 pounds. Photos of the suspect from the bank's video system went out with the police description. In this age of social networking, police said someone saw the photos on Facebook and told them, Hey, that might be a gym owner just down Mack Avenue from you in Detroit or words to that effect.

Fox and his lawyers said he clearly isnt the man in the photos. But the Grosse Pointe Woods police apparently thought he was, jailing him for two days in April last year. They also ransacked Foxs house in Harper Woods, where he lives with his wife and their 11-year-old son.

After 48 hours, police released him without filing charges. Now, "it's been more than a year and they still refuse to clear my name, Fox said. He said that he lost 20% of his clients when word of his arrest spread through Facebook and other social networks.

Last summer, Fox hired lawyers who said they contacted Grosse Pointe Woods Detective Ryan Schroerlucke, suggesting that facial-recognition software possessed by the Michigan State Police be used to confirm that Fox did not commit the bank robbery. Grosse Pointe Woods declined to do so, the lawyers said.

The Grosse Pointe Woods director of public safety referred a reporter's calls to a lawyer in Troy, Gus Morris, who specializes in defending police departments in court.

Defending police is a busy field for lawyers, especially in today's era of numerous videos that capture controversial law-enforcement tactics, Morris said.

In Foxs arrest, Detroit Thrives surveillance video clearly shows a SWAT team in riot gear, marching into the fitness studio with a German shepherd police dog, which upon reaching the gym owner did what dogs can do. It bit him in the leg, a minor injury, Fox said.

https://www.ksat.com/news/old-navy-employees-fired-after-racially-profiling-customer

Similar incident, in an Old Navy in Iowa last year, lol. The employees tried to make him pay for a coat he walked into the store wearing. The employees were fired.

I have noticed this too. Perhaps clear sodas are more popular with the African American community compared to colas.

Is it fun seeing the interior of different exotics everyday?

The Admiral posted...

So is there any evidence that this is actually over a kid stealing a 99 cent item, or are we taking a blatant propaganda Twitter feed at its word?

those cops are definitely going to lose their jobs and the mother and the guy that got arrested are going to get paid.

By the way it was totally within the employer's rights if they thought they had stolen something.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen%27s_arrest

It's also the business' right to fire you though

Wasn't she from Cory in the House?

How did she go from adorable to... this