Emery Ellis an African-American homeless man walked into a Burger King in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania expecting to buy breakfast with a small amount of cash. He had he never imagined. Such a decision would lead him to prison. Now his legal representative has explained the impact the incident had on his life on a morning. In November 2015 Ellis handed the staff member a 10 bill to pay for his order.
However, the worker denied him the meal. What’S more, they refused to give him back the cash and told him to leave the restaurant. The cashier accused Alice of handing them a forged ten dollar bill. He had no more money and he argued his case. It soon became clear.
The staff member wouldn’t be swayed but Ellis refused to leave the restaurant soon after staff called the police to make matters worse. The arrest had broken the terms of Alice’s probation for a previous unrelated crime and, as a result, police sent him to jail with no option of bail. He remained there for three months. According to Mother Jones, then in February 2016 the Secret Service discovered the 10 Bill. Ellis handed, the cashier was indeed legitimate.
The homeless man had not committed any crime, prosecutors dropped, the forgery charge and the authorities released him. It’S important to understand that it’s not a crime to unknowingly pass on a counterfeit bill in order for it to be judged as a criminal offense, an intent to defraud the seller must be proven. Still Alice had been arrested without even accidentally passing on a bogus note. Following the incident Ellis has launched a lawsuit against Burger King seeking damages of 950 thousand dollars. His case states that he suffered discrimination because of his skin color and financial circumstances.
Ellis’S legal complaint claims the actions of the Burger King staff member had been motivated by his untidy appearance. He is seeking compensation for his three months spent in jail damages for defamation and violation of his civil rights. It also alleges that he never received his original ten dollars back Alice’s White attorney, Justin Dressler said he doubted. Such an incident would have taken place if a Caucasian man, dressed in a suit, had handed over the bill. 37 year old white man, like me, doesn’t deal with the same world that a 37 year old black homeless man like Emory, does Alice’s legal action elaborates on the trauma he suffered as a result of his jail time.
It states he suffered from mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety. It also argues that he experienced public humiliation and emotional distress. As a result of the incident, Alice’s lawyer Dressler argued that his client’s homelessness shouldn’t have a bearing on his compensation. He told Mother Jones when you negotiate with these companies, they’ll say: well, he didn’t lose any wages, he lost his goddamn Freedom. You think the wages mean anything Burger.
King corporation told the Daily Mail that it has a zero tolerance policy to any kind of discrimination. However, it said that it couldn’t comment on any individual elements of the case: the franchisee two guys food is responsible for the training of its employees and any legal matters regarding its locations. Dressler told Mother Jones that two guys food offered a ten thousand dollar out-of-court settlement to Alice. However, they decided the amount to be not sufficient. The lawyer called it a nuisance money offer.
He told the website acts of discrimination, subtle and not so subtle happen every day and most of them don’t see the light of day, because most of them don’t result in any consequences. This case is about more than money. Dressler said he feels the need to discourage this sort of behavior from other corporations. He told Mother Jones. If Alice was in it for a quick Buck, he would have just taken the ten thousand dollars how many homeless people do.
You know that would turn down that money. Finer details of the incident was surely emerged once the court case takes place, but it has already reignited the debates surrounding the treatment of ethnic minorities by individuals and international brands. The topic then reignited in April 2018, when two African-American men were arrested in a Philadelphia. Starbucks staff had called the police and accused the pair of trespassing as they hadn’t ordered anything. The men, Dante, Robinson and Rashawn Nelson argued that they had been simply waiting for a friend, subsequent arrests of Robinson and Nelson, led to accusations of racism, a protest outside the cafe and, ultimately, an apology from Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson.
The two individuals settled the lawsuit out of court. The men received one dollar each and the city donated a further two hundred thousand dollars towards a youth entrepreneurship program. Meanwhile, lalade siambola, a black Yale University student, had her own Grim experience. According to the independent another student. Had called the police on her after she fell asleep in a common room on campus, she reported cyanbola as being unauthorized to be in the room and police questioned her for 15 minutes.
They later determined she could legally be in the building. There are plenty of other incidents of white people calling the police on ethnic minorities that have made the news in 2018. One of the best known examples is that of Allison attel, whose story went viral after she rang the police to report an eight-year-old girl selling water. Without a permit, meanwhile, African-American man Ellis is currently drifting between homeless, shelters, friends’s spare rooms and occasionally the streets. He told Mother Jones that a successful lawsuit will provide the leverage he needs to find a permanent home and a job.