Bill Donohue comments on how Macy’s caused a New York City police officer to be fired by falsely accusing her of shoplifting:
Jenny Mendez was an NYPD officer for less than a year when she and her mother headed to Macy’s to take advantage of post-Thanksgiving Day sales on “Black Friday” in 2012. Suddenly she found herself wrongfully arrested for shoplifting—and out of a job, because she was still in her probationary period with the NYPD.
“It was one wrong on top of another that happened to Jenny Mendez,” said her attorney. “First she was wrongly accused and then she lost the job she loved.”
The following September, she was acquitted of the charges. During the two day bench trial, the arresting store detective testified that she had been told by her boss to lie. She said she checked “yes” in a section of the report asking if Mendez admitted the theft because it was “something our boss told us” to do.
“Your boss is telling you to lie on this report?” Mendez’s attorney asked. “I guess so, yes,” the Macy’s store detective replied.
“Tell your boss that’s a bad practice,” said the judge.
As we have been documenting, “bad practices” seem to be a staple at Macy’s, in its treatment of both employees and customers. Among the most egregious, of course, was the one that first got our attention: firing a Catholic employee, not for any defiance of Macy’s transgender bathroom polices, which he agreed to abide by; but simply because of his thoughts on the subject (click here).
Contact Macy’s VP for Corporate Communications and External Affairs Jim Sluzewski: jim.sluzewski@macys.com
