General Motors has suspended the arrest powers of its security guards following a federal lawsuit alleging abuse at the company’s headquarters in Detroit, Michigan.
According to CBS Detroit, GM is being sued after white security guards were accused of assaulting and harassing Black co-workers and guests of the Renaissance Center, a glass skyscraper where the company’s headquarters are located, also known as the RenCen. The building also houses several other businesses, including a Marriott hotel.
GM released a statement announcing the suspension of the guards’ arrest powers at the RenCen on Jan 5.
“General Motors has zero tolerance for harassment or discrimination. We are taking the matter seriously and are reviewing the alleged incidents where bias and use of excessive force are claimed, Allied Universal’s practices and protocols, and our contractual relationship with the compan
y,” says the statement.
“In the meantime, Allied Universal has removed from all GM sites the officers involved in any incidents under review. We have suspended arrest powers for Allied Universal at the Renaissance Center. We have requested additional support from the Detroit police. All Allied Universal officers assigned to GM properties in Detroit have completed required racial sensitivity and de-escalation trainin
g.”
Several security guards were terminated last November after the lawsuit filed by a longtime Black security guard accused white guards at the RenCen of assaulting and harassing Black visitors. The Detroit Free Press was the first to report on the lawsuit that detailed heinous acts dating back to 2011.
White security guards were accused of targeting one Black guest, Demarko Brown, while he was staying at the Marriot for his birthday back in 2020. The guards harassed him and later violently beat him while holding him in the basement of the building.
Brown was beaten so badly that he was left brain-damaged. He was also denied access to the bathroom and forced to urinate on himself. Another woman, who was targeted by the guards and held in the basement, remained there so long that she eventually urinated on herself as well.
Another violent beating occurred in 2017 when rapper Obie Trice said he was attacked by five guards at the RenCen.
Trice said after he tried to find a bathroom for his girlfriend to use, he was targeted by the guards, who later choked, beat, and pepper sprayed him. Trice was arrested for disorderly conduct, and he filed a lawsuit against Marriot, claiming he was beaten after the guards harassed him about whether he was a guest of the establishment.
FOX 2 Detroit shared footage of a guard beating a 61-year-old unhoused woman in August of 2022 after she tried to get out of the rain. Video captured the security guard slamming the woman to the ground and then punching her in the head repeatedly. The woman was also detained in the building’s basement before being taken to the hospital. The guard was not charged with a crime, and the woman was hospitalized for a month following the attack
Robert Barnes worked at the RenCen for 32 years and filed a federal lawsuit after all of his complaints about the abuse he witnessed were ignored. He was retaliated against and said his supervisor told him to delete security footage.
“This has got to stop,” he told Fox 2 Detroit. “People have to come forward. Someone’s going to get killed, and I am speaking from my professional aspect, not my emotions in this.”
Barnes also said that he knew he had to do something drastic after the 61-year-old woman was viciously attacked. “You’re vulnerable if you are homeless if you are a stranger off the street if you’re a juvenile, you are vulnerable. Who are you going to tell? Who, who’s going to believe you over me?”
His attorney, Danielle Safran, said that the security guards should be in jail.
“These are such clear displays of abuses of authority, excessive force, violations of constitutional rights – people are being assaulted,” said Safran. “These officers should be in jail, they should have their license pulled. But there is no transparency, people don’t know about it.”
