wrongfully arrested for shoplifting is going to sue the force and department store Triminghams.

Allen Turner, who was born in the United States but educated at Berkeley Institute, said the Police officers made xenophobic comments about him being American and refused to let him show them the receipt for the shirt he had bought.

Mr. Turner, 26, who is back for the Berkeley 10-year reunion, said Police held him for four and a half hours on Friday before deciding to drop the charges.

He said he had a receipt for the t-shirt he bought at A.S. Coopers but was not given a chance to show it to the officers.

Man describes humiliation of false arrest He told The Royal Gazette he was humiliated to be arrested for shoplifting at Triminghams by three detectives as he was having lunch with a friend in Par-La-Ville park.

Mr. Turner, who works in Parkville, Maryland but has a Bermudian mother, claims the Police said to him he was a "dumb American'' and a "f***ing idiot''.

He alleges they said: "You came all the way here to steal a t-shirt, you are a real American a**hole. All you Americans are alike.'' When he tried to explain his Bermudian roots, Mr. Turner said they told him: "Nobody gives a f*** what you are saying until you get to the Police station''.

Mr. Turner said: "The detectives approached me with an attitude that I was totally guilty and with utter disrespect for my human rights. I was ethnically slurred several times on the way to the Police station.

"Once inside, I was left in tears and anger while one detective pointed his finger in my face and threatening me, saying `Don't ever f***ing accuse me of framing anybody, you don't even know me'.

"My pride was shredded, my manhood challenged, my nationality made fun of, all over a misunderstanding of a t-shirt. Is this what my mother's homeland has come to?'' Mr. Allen said he would be meeting his lawyer today to discuss taking legal action.

Police could not be contacted for comment last night.

DISCRIMINATION DIS