Portland Hotel Fires Two Employees Who Called Police on Black Guest

The DoubleTree hotel in Portland, Oregon fired the two employees who were responsible for calling police on a black guest while he was talking on the phone in the lobby. The Hilton-owned hotel posted a statement on Twitter saying that the “mistreatment” of Jermaine Massey was “inconsistent with our standards & values. We reiterate our sincere apology for what he endured & will work with diversity experts to ensure this never happens again.”

Massey’s story went viral after he posted a series of videos on Instagram showing how a security guard and a manager at the hotel were responsible for kicking him out even though he was a guest there. The guard—who came to be known as “Hotel Earl” on social media—apparently asked Massey whether he was a guest in the middle of his phone call and then decided to call police when he was not satisfied with the answer. When police arrived they told Massey he had to leave, meaning he was forced to find a new place to spend the night at around midnight.  â€œI was racially profiled and treated unfairly,” Massey said in one of a series of Instagram videos.

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Tonight I was racially profiled and discriminated against for taking a phone call in the lobby of my hotel room at the @doubletreepdx @doubletree. The security guard “Earl” decided that he would call the police on me, the exact reason is still unclear to me. He said that I was a safety threat to the other guests and that I was trespassing and said that I was a disturbance because I took a personal phone call from my mom in a more remote area of the lobby. The manager who actually called the cops, “Luis” actually asked me AFTER he called the cops, what happened? They already had in their minds that they didn’t want me there so I waited for the cops to show up and when they did, I explained my side of the story and they didn’t want to hear it. They asked me if I had personal items in my room (which of course I did) and asked me to go retrieve them. They told me that since the hotel requested me to leave, that if I didn’t I would be considered a trespasser and would be thrown in jail. I complied and cooperated and was not issued a refund for my room. I packed my stuff and went to another hotel. I cannot believe the level of professionalism that this hotel property had with me tonight. It is never ok to discriminate against guests for the color of their skin and to prejudge them based on your own bias against that race. Earl is a disgrace, calls himself a man but calls the Portland Police Dept on a man who was minding his own business in the lobby of his hotel. I had my hotel key in my hand the entire conversation, he knew I was a guest. He wanted to prove a point and did it in the worst way. Not really shocked that this happened but just extremely disappointed. I will be seeking justice. Believe that. @doubletree @doubletreepdx @hiltonhonors #hilton #hiltonhotels #racism #racisminamerica #racismisreal @shaunking

A post shared by m a i n e (@mymainereason) on Dec 23, 2018 at 2:02am PST

The hotel announced the terminations a day after it issued a statement saying it had placed the employees on leave while it reviewed the incident. “We have a zero-tolerance stance on discrimination of any kind, and do not tolerate behavior of that nature. We are seeking the counsel of community leaders, and will engage a third-party to conduct a full investigation into the incident – reviewing our internal processes, protocols and trainings to ensure we are creating and maintaining a safe space for everyone,” the hotel’s general manager, Paul Peralta, said. “The employees involved have since been placed on leave for the duration of this investigation, and we will take the appropriate measures to ensure this does not happen again.”