Last week it was Starbucks, this week it is LA Fitness.
On April 16, Tshyrad Oates and his friend went to an LA Fitness in Secaucus, New Jersey. He was attending on a four-day guest pass and his friend was already a member for eight years. For some reason, the management at LA Fitness couldn’t imagine these two Black men could legally be using the gym.
According to Oates’ Facebook post, “After about a half hour I was approached by this same employee telling me that I had to leave or pay and I explained to her that I just signed in with her with the guest pass. She stated that it was my friend who did not pay (unaware that her manager had already signed him in with his membership pass). My friend stated to her that he is an active and current member and that his gym tag [sic] was in his locker. ”
His friend’s membership was rescanned and showed “current active statues.” Nonetheless, the manager still wanted the young men out of the gym and the cops were called, “We again started our workout and 10 mins later an La Fitness manager told us to leave, we stated that we did not do anything wrong and have active current memberships. 2 mins later 5 police men show up asking us to leave.
This L.A. Fitness manager who refused to give us his reason to kicking us out, and refused to give us his name stated that I was banned from the gym and my friend’s gym membership has been terminated effective immediately.” Tshyrad also provided video, see below:
The best part of the video is the whining manager insisting they men stop filming — because he doesn’t want receipts of his racial profiling — and the cop says, “I get it! You guys don’t like cell phones but it’s not criminal activity.”
Thankfully, the officers did not react like the police at the Starbucks in Philadelphia, wrongfully arresting them and holding two Black men in jail for eight hours.
UPDATE:
L.A. Fitness responded to the incident by releasing a statement to NJ.com, “Regrettably, our staff unnecessarily escalated the situation and called the police rather than work through it. Clearly, this is a long time member with a current, valid membership. We want to clarify that no membership was cancelled and no one, including the member’s guest, was banned from the club. We have spoken to the member to apologize and assured him that he and his guests are welcome in our clubs at all times.”
In addition, all three L.A. Fitness employees who appeared in the video have been fired. NJ.com also reports, “An employee who answered the phone at L.A. Fitness in Secaucus told NJ Advance Media the manager who appeared in the video recorded by one of the men has been ‘removed from the company.’ The employee, a salesman who would only give his first name Josos, also said two women who were working that evening and badgered the men are no longer employees.”
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WATCH: L.A. Fitness Calls Police On Black Men For Not Breaking The Law was originally published on newsone.com
