Smart & Final fined for discriminatory bag policy

after an LA man says he was discriminated against at a Smart and Final store the city steps in and does something it's never done before the city of La putting a new civil rights law into action by issuing its first citation the city is now taking action against the store and a security company after Shoppers claims he was treated differently because of his race K Cal's Cara finstrom has details Smart and Final and a security service have both been slapped with fines today we heard from the shop

who filed the complaint he says he went to a Smart and Final was going to go shopping was told he had to leave the backpack at the door decided to take his backpack Home Instead and when he came back said he realized other Shoppers weren't being told to do the same thing all I wanted to do was to get groceries but I was treated differently than other patrons in store all because of the color of my skin I never deserved this form of discrimination Cory Brown took pictures of the other Shoppers a

t the downtown store and called the LA civil rights Department the department was just established in 2020 it has the authority to enforce civil and human rights laws its director says they're working to stop discrimination in everything from housing to Commerce to education the department citing Smart and Final with a violation that carries a $10,000 fine and the vendor non-stop Security Services $5,000 the new department works with papery law and has mitigated about 20 complaints since it laun

ched this is its first enforcement action but theor ctor says the services are free and they want to get the word out people don't know we exist and we've spent money in print media um and we really um we know in Los Angeles there are Billboards and there tv ads for lawyers day and night um but unfortunately the city of Los Angeles doesn't have those resources to let people know how they've been wronged and so I encourage folks whenever they hear a lawyer ad uh to know that we are the lawyers he

re in the city of Los Angeles that are prepared to fight for them if they've been discriminated against and she also stresses bag policies can be legal they just have to be practiced without discrimination anyone who wants to learn more about this department can call 311 or check them out online Cara finstrom K Cal news Smart and Final issued a statement saying we have only just received information from the city regarding these claims which involve a former thirdparty security guard and not one

of our employees we take these allegations very serious iously and are actively investigating the matter discrimination goes against our core values and has no place in our stores