Staff at a bank in Ohio called police on a black man trying to cash his paycheck
By Andrea Diaz and Amanda Watts, CNN
Updated 0604 GMT (1404 HKT) December 20, 2018
Bank calls 911 on black man cashing check 00:58
(CNN)
— An African-American man who couldn’t cash his paycheck at a
Huntington bank in Brooklyn, Ohio, says the staff was “judging” him.
Paul
McCowns, 30, told CNN affiliate WOIO he recently got a new job and was
trying to cash his first paycheck earlier this month, but the tellers
wouldn’t cash the check, which was just over $1,000.
Although
McCowns didn’t specify he was being racially profiled, social media has
picked up the hashtag #BankingWhileBlack upon hearing about the
incident. The hashtag is very similar to those seen in the past, such as
#BarbecuingWhileBlack, #BabysittingWhileBlack and
#CampaigningWhileBlack, which were coined after a white person called
the police on black people while they were seen doing day-to-day
activities.
As he was leaving the bank emptyhanded, McCowns was
met by Brooklyn Police, handcuffed and placed in the back of a cruiser.
When McCowns asked what was happening, the officer said the bank’s
teller had called 911.
“I have a customer here — he’s not our
customer, actually. He’s trying to cash a check and the check is
fraudulent. It does not match our records,” a bank employee says on a
recording of the 911 call obtained by CNN.
McCowns
doesn’t bank with Huntington and its staff was not able to reach his
employer at first, but he followed bank protocol and provided the
tellers with two forms of identification and a fingerprint. The bank
still declined to cash his check.
“It was highly embarrassing,
highly embarrassing,” McCowns told WOIO. “The person who made that phone
call — that manager, that teller — whoever made that phone call, I feel
as though they were judging.”
The Brooklyn Police Department
said in a statement that McCowns was released once officers reached his
employer and “confirmed with the account holder the check was valid.”
“We
were called to the bank on the report of a fraudulent check. We were
given a description of the individual. When we arrived the male was
leaving in his vehicle. He was not arrested but he was detained until
our officers could figure out what was going on,” Brooklyn Police Chief
Scott Mielke said in a statement obtained by CNN.
According to
the police statement, the bank branch has had more than 10 arrests for
fraudulent checks since July 18, and a bank representative told WOIO
that was why the tellers were being “hyper-vigilant.”
The bank has released a statement apologizing to McCowns.
“We
sincerely apologize to Mr. McCowns for this extremely unfortunate
event. We accept responsibility for contacting the police as well as our
own interactions with Mr. McCowns. Anyone who walks into a Huntington
branch should feel welcomed. Regrettably, that did not occur in this
instance and we are very sorry. We hold ourselves accountable to the
highest ethical standards in how we operate, hire and train colleagues,
and interact with the communities we have the privilege of serving,”
Huntington said.
McCowns later cashed his paycheck at a different Huntington branch, with no inconvenience, WOIO reported.
CNN has reached out to McCowns for further comment.
Source:- CNN
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