Want to make a million dollars?
Forget about work or business — that path is fraught with frustration and rejection, sweat and tears. Just go shopping.
Don’t dress too nicely. Do whatever it takes to make it appear as if you might have stolen something.
Ten billion dollars a year is lost by American stores due to shoplifting. Stores hire security guards to prevent theft. Sometimes the guards make mistakes, like the rest of us, and wrongly accuse someone of shoplifting.
If you’re the person wrongly accused, you can make an easy million.
In October we told you the story of Alonzo Jackson and his two friends, who were awarded a million dollars after an Eddie Bauer security guard wrongly accused Jackson of stealing a shirt.
The latest winner is Paula Hampton of Kansas City. She won a grand total of $1,156,000 after she was wrongly accused of shoplifting by a security guard at Dilliard’s department store.
The case hinged on the fact that Ms. Hampton was denied a free fragrance gift.
Not only did Ms. Hampton win big, but she even won more than she asked for. She sought a million dollars in punitive damages, and the jury actually awarded her $1.1 million, plus $56,000 in compensatory damages.
Both the Jackson and Hampton cases hinged on discrimination — both Hampton and Jackson said they were accused of shoplifting because they are black. Amazingly enough, despite the million dollar verdicts, in neither case did the jury decide that the security guard acted with racist intent. In neither case did the security guard use physical force.
The Hampton case was won, in part, on statistics introduced that state a disproportionate number of blacks had been stopped in that particular Dilliard’s on suspicion of shoplifting. Yes, well, so what? There are a disproportionate number of men in prison, as compared to women, yet no one seriously makes the case that men are, as a class, discriminated against in the penal system. (Well, okay, maybe DO will make that argument in the future.)
In addition to the gross injustice of awarding people millions of dollars for minor grievances, these awards, and other cases like them now percolating through the legal system, will have some serious long-range effects. First of all, despite the vast losses due to shoplifting, retailers will be extremely reluctant to accuse anyone of shoplifting. Real shoplifters, of all races, will soon discover that they have a license to steal. Those losses are going to get passed along in the form of higher prices to the rest of us. As it is, honest consumers are the ones that ultimately pay for these damage judgments as well as the huge legal costs involved.
For those readers who think judgments such as the Alonzo and Hampton ones are always overturned or reduced on appeal, we’d like to direct you to the Paula Coughlin story we did earlier this year. The $5 million judgment against Hilton was actually upheld in May. (Hilton was not accused of harassment, but only of not preventing harassment of the naval aviator by her fellow Navy officers.)
In honor of the Hampton ruling, we’d like to introduce a new song, and we hope DO readers will help us with the lyrics. Gather round now, as we all sing:
“I’m a victim
And so are you
If we get a good lawyer
We can get rich too!“
(Source:The Kansas City Star.)
As extreme as some of the jury awards seem, they have acted as deterrents for further unjust accusations and arrests. Most security guards are not professionals. They are usually minimum wage people and often poorly trained.
Title 38 of the US code is a travesty of justice and must be revised. Until recently veterans who suffered debilitating frostbite injuries in combat were entirely denied benefits. Frostbite was not considered a combat injury. I worked on a case that turned this policy.
Title 38 is an artifact of the Civil War and World War I. Look at the archaic forms of language in it. It is adversarial and demeaning in content. The Congress must change it. Who amongst the Congress has the courage to initiate these changes?
I don’t think that your comparison of the (traditional) mistreatment of veterans and the volume of awards in civil cases is entirely apt. The mistreatment of veterans began long before the advent of large awards in civil cases.
Respectfully, M.W.S.
Time: 6/8/98 (7:57:1)
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I bet a white person wouldn’t
have won a 1.1 million dollar
lawsuit.
It does not surprise me to see a nigger win a 1.1 million
dollar lawsuit. they’re such a pampered race of people!
I’ve been accused of shoplifting
What a terrible crime
I suggest we have a sit-in
Something to pass the time
Our checks will soon get sorted
Handed out while we wait in line
A million dollars for each of us – oh yes, the suckers bought it!
So let’s celebrate and pour another glass of whine!
WHINE! WHINE! WHINE!
WHINE! WHINE! WHINE!
(c) Copyright 2002. This poem was produced by Michael. All rights reserved.
PS Actually, I agree with the victims receiving large sums. Hell, the rich screw the system for all it’s worth (checked out executive pay lately?), so why not the “little guy”?
For some odd reason I briefly believed (assumed) that the majority of this country was educated enough to know the origins of the word n*gger. I thought that non-blacks understood that the word nigga has been excepted only for protection from more racist verbal abuse. In the past year or so, I have run into racial conflicts involving the casual use of the word n*gger. Apparently my assumption was incorrect. If only you, Dan, could truly comprehend what blacks went through in the 40’s and 50’s maybe you would not use such harmful words. I, an African-American, hesitate to use the word nigga and don’t use the word n*gger. I always remind myself that that word was used by racists when they lynched blacks and it hasn’t been excepted by the African-American community. For you to use that word in the manner that you did is sad. I asks myself why rascism exist. Why can’t we just live with each other without hatred. So many christians, catholics, etc; yet so many hearts filled with hatred. I wonder who’s going to heaven?
Regardless of your religious background or lack of…Why waste your time hating and using hateful words.
By your comment i gather that you think racism doesn’t exist or that it isn’t as prevailent in society as commonly expressed. If any of these are true, i beg you to just look at your words.
“Words from the mouth are the thoughts of the heart”
if any one e-mails me, write something personal in the subject section of the email so that i don’t assume that its junk mail please.
Well…I don’t think anyone should be singled out at all no matter who they are, what they do, how much money they have, etc. I am recently facing a possible lawsuit on my company that involves racism. I am a white female who has been harrassed by some of the black employees at my work. I have been having a problem with two black females at my work. I am one of those people who, well, I wouldn’t say a party pooper but I just like to voice my opinion when I feel something is wrong. I guess that can be both a flaw and something good. Well, the black employees at my work seem to be getting away with a lot of stuff. Actually, I see them everyday doing everything that is against the policies at our work and getting away with it. It is almost like the black managers are just racist and the white managers are just scared of a lawsuit. Whatever it is, I just know that when a white employee does anything wrong they are either immmediatly fired or watched carefully for more things that they do wrong and then fired. Both incidents involved one of the girls doing something wrong such as…the first girl was gone shopping on the clock or doing something else because she left me in my area working and didn’t return most of the day. I said something to a manager and she got mad and came in the next day threatening me and cussing at me in front of customers. The next incident involved the other black female. She took one of my sales and when I asked her if she knew that I was helping that person she went crazy. She started getting loud and bringing up old stuff and cussing and again threatened me. Again the managers didn’t do anything about it. They called me into the office and started going on about how I was the only one wrong and that I was completely at fault. I felt very embarressed and mistreated. After we went back on the floor she continued to harrass me and say stuff about it not being over yet and such. The story goes on but the point I am getting at is that people sit here and go on about racism against blacks but don’t pay much attention to the everyday racism to whites. Black people think that it is just them who gets harrassed but that isn’t true. It happens everyday.