Mayor Richard Thomas of Mount Vernon, New York, recently discussed how staff at a local JP Morgan & Chase bank called the police on him, a staff member and a Mount Vernon police detective when he attempted to deposit a six-figure check and gain access to the city’s online banking records.
The employee called police on the three men April 25. Fortunately, officers who arrived on the scene recognized the police detective by Thomas’ side, EUR reports. Thomas believes race played a role in the phone call; the two men with him were Black and Hispanic.
“As a Mayor and as a young, well-educated black man living during this turbulent time in society where police are being called on black people for going about everyday life, this is unacceptable,” Thomas wrote in a letter to Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. “We’ve seen this happen to the two black men at a Starbucks in Philadelphia. We’ve also seen this happen to Oregon Rep. Janelle Bynum while she was campaigning. Now it happened to me.”
Thomas said he would visit the Office of Currency Comptroller on May 6 to file a racial profiling/redlining complaint.
