Redondo Beach CA Aug 5 2013 A Hawthorne man has filed a lawsuit against the South Bay Galleria alleging that security officers routinely discriminated against him and other black males at the Redondo Beach mall.
Cortes Rex claims his civil rights were violated by what he characterizes as routine race-based harassment. He also accuses mall personnel of slander, alleging two mall security guards called him a "robber" and a "old dirty robber" who was in the mall "to steal something."
Additionally, Rex alleges he saw a pattern of discrimination against black patrons and the merchants who catered to them. Galleria management, he claims, would pressure merchants not to sell items that appeal to black shoppers.
Specifically, the suit claims, management has asked some merchants to "stop selling President Obama and Michelle Obama merchandise, as it brought in the 'wrong element' to the mall and to sell 'white people stuff.' "
"We will call some of the mall merchants as witnesses of the discrimination," Myer said.
Mall executives could not be reached for comment on the 41-page suit, which was filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court.
In his lawsuit, Rex alleges that security guards at the mall would routinely "follow and stalk" black male customers.
"The pattern of behavior has been going on for many, many months," said Rex's attorney, Scott Myer. "My client stopped going there late last year. He feels unsafe and unwelcome."
Rex's lawsuit is the latest legal challenge facing the mall.
The South Bay Galleria, located at Hawthorne and Redondo Beach boulevards, was named in a lawsuit filed in early 2013 on behalf of two teenagers knifed during a December 2012 attack.
Both teens were stabbed in the heart for no apparent reason by an assailant who has never been caught.
In the lawsuit, it's alleged that the teenage girl injured in the December 2012 attack suffered injuries that could lead to more heart surgeries.
A lawyer for one of the teenagers called the mall a "cesspool of crime."
According to the Redondo Beach Police Department website, 146 crimes were reported during the past 90 days in the quarter-mile area surrounding and including the Galleria.
The crimes included 61 petty thefts and 14 burglaries. One attempted murder was reported.
The crimes included one robbery and one attempted robbery. The offenses otherwise included vandalism, disturbing the peace, drunk in public, driving under the influence, forgery, grand theft, drug possession, fighting, spousal abuse, identity theft, making terrorist threats and car repossession.
source-dailybreeze.com