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A DoubleTree Hotel in Portland, Oregon has fired two employees who were involved in calling 911 on a Black man who was guest in the establishment ABC News reported.

Jermaine Massey was on the phone with his mother in the hotel’s lobby on Dec. 22 when he was approached by a security guard, Earl Meyers according to the police report. Massey captured the interaction on a video he posted on Instagram which has now gone viral.

The hotel announced on Saturday it is firing Meyers and another employee citing their actions were “inconsistent with our standards.”

Massey told ABC News, “In that moment when Earl approached me, I was blindsided. I was handling a personal family call and I was a little shocked that he approached me when I was on a call. I wasn’t disturbing anyone, but I confirmed his question and then he continually harassed me about it. … I feel like I was being interrogated. And I just didn’t feel like I was being respected.”

Massey said he believes his race played a factor in what he said was a “humiliating” incident.

“The reason I feel like I was singled out is because of my race,” Massey said. “And the other folks in the video, as you can see, were white. I’m black, African-American, and that’s the only justification I have. I have no other way to explain why I was selected out of all the people in the hotel to be questioned that night.”

However, the hotel did not specifically cite race in its announcement of the two employees’ firings according to ABC News.

“We have terminated the employment of the two men involved in the mistreatment of Mr. Massey. Their actions were 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,” the hotel tweeted Saturday.

We have terminated the employment of the two men involved in the mistreatment of Mr. Massey. Their actions were 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. — DoubleTree Portland (@doubletreepdx) December 29, 2018

As 2018 comes to a close the incident is the latest example of white people calling police on Black people for no apparent reason.

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Greg Kafoury, Massey’s lawyer, told the news station that Massey had checked into the hotel, gone out to dinner across the street and gone to a Travis Scott concert that evening. Then his mother called him after 11 PM because of a family issue Kafoury said.

Massey did not want to take the call in the elevator, Massey talked to his mom in “a quiet corner of the lobby,” the attorney said. The Meyers proceeded to confront Massey and asked if he was guest at the hotel and eventually called police according to his attorney.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BrudBSxFADP/

“He’s calling the cops on me because I’m taking a phone call at the DoubleTree hotel,” Massey said in the video he captured. “I had a family emergency and I was taking a phone call and this guy’s harassing me.”

“Portland police will be here in a minute,” the security guard can be heard saying. “To escort you off the property.”

“And I’m staying here,” Massey said.

“Not anymore,” the guard responded.

The manager then called the police, Kafoury said. After police arrived on the scene, Massey was escorted to his hotel room, where he showed the police his identification according to ABC News. Meyers informed police that there was a lot of foot traffic in the hotel stemming from the concert and that he saw a man sitting in the lobby on the phone, according to the police report.

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“He said he approached the man and asked him if he was a guest of the hotel and if so what his room number was,” according to the police report.

“Mr. Massey became loud and started yelling that the hotel was racist and that he was being victimized,” according to the police report. “I explained to him that since the persons in charge of the property had said he would need to leave that he needed to leave.”

Massey was escorted out by police, and chose to drive his own car to another hotel, Kafoury said.

Kafoury told ABC News that his client plans to sue the franchise owner of the DoubleTree Portland and the Hilton Hotel chain. However, he does not intend to file a lawsuit against the Portland police, the attorney added.

“Hilton is committed to providing a diverse and inclusive culture, quality accommodations and welcoming environments for all guests and Team Members visiting our more than 5,500 properties,” a company statement said.

“Hilton has zero tolerance for racism. We have been working with the DoubleTree by Hilton Portland, an independently owned and operated property, as they have reviewed and responded to an on-property incident,” the statement continued. “Hilton also holds our franchise partners to related standards. We have made diversity and unconscious bias training mandatory for General Managers and encouraged for other hotel managers across all Hilton-branded properties.”

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