[Kimmitmelvirm]

Interesting story, of course, I'm not generalising, but my question to you is, do you think african americans still have to deal with this sort of bullshit on a daily basis?


On June 24, 2010, Ikenna Njoku walked into an Auburn, Wash., branch of Chase Bank intending to cash a $8,463 Chase cashier's check he'd brought in the day before.

Instead, members of the Auburn Police Department handcuffed Njoku and threw him in jail, where he sat for the next four days. Chase claimed Njoku had tried to cash a fraudulent check. Twenty-four hours later, Chase realized it had made an error.

"I was really embarrassed. I got put under arrest in front of a lot of people," Njoku said.

A year ago, the 28-year-old former construction worker had been thrilled to buy his first home, and qualified for the first-time home buyer tax rebate. According to a letter Njoku's lawyers wrote to Chase Bank, the Internal Revenue Service had wired more than $9,000 into Njoku's account. Chase deducted $600 to recoup the amount it was allegedly owed for Njoku's overdrafts and mailed Njoku the balance -- $8,463.21 -- in a cashier's check.

When Njoku went to Chase Bank to cash the check, he presented two forms of ID. Njoku said the teller was rude. "She looked me up and down and asked me a series of questions, like where I got the check and what I did for a living."


According to Matthew Knopp, one of Njoku's attorneys, the teller told Njoku that she could not cash the check immediately. When Njoku returned the next day, Chase refused to honor the check and instead had the Auburn Police Department arrest Njoku and haul him off to King County Jail.

"At bottom, what Chase did was wrong," Knopp said. "They treated him in a way that no one wants to be treated or deserves to be treated."

Cmdr. Mike Hirman said that a Chase representative had left a voicemail message for a Police Department detective June 25, a Friday, saying that the check was valid and that it had made a mistake.

"This means there was no longer a probable cause for arrest, and Ikenna should have been released from jail," Hirman said.

But the detective was not in that day, and the Police Department did not hear Chase's message until Monday.

"It was tough sitting in jail for so long," Njoku said. "Chase is the company that's responsible. People go to cash checks every day and not every time do people get thrown in jail."

Hirman said, "The lawyers think Chase could have tried harder to get him out, like calling 911 to speak to someone or following up."

During his four-day jail stint, Njoku's favorite Infinity I30, which he'd parked in the bank's lot, was impounded. Without sufficient funds to retrieve it and pay the fees, the car was auctioned off.

A year later, Njoku is still without a car.

According to his lawyers, without a vehicle, Njoku couldn't get to work, and so he lost his job too.

Njoku's attorneys have demanded that Chase make "full and fair financial compensation" to their client.

"He lost a lot, and hopefully they will simply do the right thing," Knopp said.

Tom Kelly of Chase Media Relations said in a statement to ABCNews.com, "This is a very unfortunate and unusual situation. We apologize to Mr. Njoku and deeply regret what happened to him. We are working quickly to understand all the details so we can reach a fair resolution."

The original check had been seized as evidence during Njoku's arrest and not returned to him until five weeks later -- a major point of contention for Njoku's lawyers who said that Chase should have recognized its mistake and reissued their client a new check immediately.

"I'm hoping that their policy changes," Njoku said, "and this doesn't happen to anyone else."
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/washi...ry?id=14027856

Timeline, he gets a tax rebate, chase deducted $600 that he owed them from the cheque amount, he goes to cash the chase cheque in at the bank, instead of checking it's validity (it is a Chase cheque afterall) the employee fucks him around and gets suspicious that a black man is living in that suburban neighbourhood and that he has a large cheque, he comes back the next day and gets arrested for a felony (forgery). 24 hours later while he's sitting in jail, Chase leave a voicemail message on the police phone, but no one heard it, so the guy had to sit in jail for a weekend, he got fired, he lost his car, and chase didn't even apologise at the end of it.

I'm hoping he sues their ass, customers leave them, and he gets adequate compensation (this happened a year ago, and they haven't compensated him)

My question again, do some races (especially aframs) have to deal with this sort of suspicion and treatment by employees and also government officials?

[drexigordiche]

All I know is that USA is famous of its rhinos

[OpVJokl8]

All I know is that USA is famous of its rhinos

rhinos?

[mralabama]

rhinos?

I know so little

[Diwokfkq]

What a bunch of dick heads.
They are being sued, and will loose much more money than they set out to gain by their unwarranted suspicious behavior. Auburn, Wa is a Small town with < 3% Aframs, so I can already imagine a hickish clerk gasping for sweet Jesus as a Negro enters the building.

[15Praxanant]

What a bunch of dick heads.
They are being sued, and will loose much more money than they set out to gain by their unwarranted suspicious behavior. Auburn, Wa is a Small town with < 3% Aframs, so I can already imagine a hickish clerk gasping for sweet Jesus as a Negro enters the building.

They didn't expect the media would care about some random negro getting his life ruined, banks play dice like this all the time, most of the time they win, it's only by sheer luck that this guy got his story out (it took a year for anyone to find out anyway).

[Adimondin]

How can you even begin to compare the racist rampaging murdering raping devestation of blacks with an everyday nonevent. The moron could get a job if he wanted.

[Payodcapy542fro]

Somehow I have a feeling that if this happened to you you wouldn't call it a nonevent.

[Sydrothcoathy]

And then I LOL when the Bass and Co. say LatAm is racist. Take care of your own backyard first cous!

[Khurlxgq]

How hard is it to verify a cashier's cheque (A check that is already guaranteed by a bank form the get go) in this day of massive speed in information transfer anyway?

[JanetMorris]

The original check had been seized as evidence during Njoku's arrest and not returned to him until five weeks later only in America lol I dont see that happen in Europe, ever.

[EmxATW5m]

That all sounds pretty fucked up. Banks have a process where they verify cashier's checks. Sometimes if it is between two different banks, it takes a few minutes for them to look something up. When it is the same bank that issues the check, I can't imagine it being an issue at all. If the check was valid and from the same bank, and the individual had valid ID, this should have never happened.

I didn't spot in the article where it said he was African-American of the traditional variety, i.e. native born. The name sounds native African, although that doesn't mean it is. I can tell you that Nigerians get stereotyped A LOT here in the States for running financial scams and sending fake cashier's checks to victims. Local news stations do segments warning people not to accept cashier's checks from strangers, especially if they're from Nigeria. It could be the bank employee was, like a dumbass, assuming there was some scam involved because of the African-sounding name, more so than straight racial profiling against African-Americans, especially if the individual was truly African and speaking English with a non-native accent.

He will undoubtedly win a fat lawsuit, and the bank employee will probably be fired from their job unless they can prove they were following some documented procedure.

This idea that the bank should have called 911 to expedite his release from jail is bogus in my experience. 911 operators get a lot of non-emergency calls which they rudely ignore and that's understandable. A call to 911 by a bank employee about a financial crime would definitely get ignored the same way.

[tooratrack]

omg... that is disgusting behaviour, unprofessional and racist.

[Z2sc8gEz]

For fucks sake a person today can deposit a personal check, let alone a cashier's check, from a Goddamn phone!! He'd have been better of depositing his check from an ATM machine or his phone, LOL , at least a machine or computer won't profile you and then call the cops to come and arrest you all for nothing. LOL

[Boripiomi]

And then I LOL when the Bass and Co. say LatAm is racist. Take care of your own backyard first cous!

You're barking up the wrong tree, the Bass has never said racism is USA is less worse than in Latin America, at least I don't get emotional and start chimping out when people point out the racism in America, that would be crackers like Anodyne. Latin Americans OTOH, chimp out and get emotional whenever an Afram or any American talks about racism in Latin America and swears everything is an over exaggeration.

Besides, Aframs are the ones responsible for the race problem in America, tell that to the people who are.

[OnerePeepsy]

This all probably occurred because some hick (washington is FULL of them) bank teller's brain short-circuited when she saw a man with such predominant African features. She saw him and how much the check was for and then she decided "this nigger doesn't deserve to walk among us let alone receive this much money". I bet that's a direct quote from her sick head