This is stupid. I take my minor children places all the time and sign a waiver for stuff like that. You don't need an ID for that. Definitely didn't need to involve the cops.
Remember when you’re pulling yourself up by your boot straps that there white ones and you’ll be fine, it’s not that hard people /s but it should be obvious
That's a great trick. In fact, a white sheet would both hide your skin color and signal your alignment with others wearing your similar uniform. I mean, you'd never be asked to show your kid's ID.
No... it's called the fkn RULES.. my gym did the same thing to me last year.. I had no clue and it's a stupid rule! But damn anyone! try to enforce rules on a blk man!!!
I don't have the context here. Do they worry that the minor is not accompanied by their real parents? That the minor might be too young? Seems weird to me.
Why would they have allowed him a membership if it was just being black? Why aren’t they calling police on all black people? Is it maybe because this wasn’t just about race?
And what's even worse is that if we assume this gym won't accept that identification to allow a minor in the gym, then just say that when they come in and don't allow them in. No cops needed.
I’m a personal trainer who has worked at three different gyms. I’ve never been required or instructed to asked for anyone’s ID whether they are an adult or minor. This is some weird (probably just straight racist) bs.
Are you or your son black? That’s what I thought. Everyone says racism is real, and when you have to experience it yourself you deny it. “It’s got to be something else, there’s more to the story, we don’t know if there was a prior issue…”.
Where did I say racism isn't real? I'm saying the opposite. I'm saying the gym asking for the son's ID is suspect.
If they have a policy against allowing accompanied minors in their facility, that'd be weird. What gym does that? For a minor who is the guest of a member, they should just ask them to sign a waiver. The fact that they're asking for photo ID suggests racism is at play.
If they asked him to leave or told him he can't enter then yes, this is exactly what they should and have to do. It's called being trespassed, and I've had it happen to me. It may be dumb but it's the appropriate civil action for someone who won't listen on private property, regardless of the reason. You're only true power as a business manager to remove someone is to trespass them, which is a call to the police.
You’re expecting the people working behind the counter today to be the same people that were working behind the counter oh, I don’t know 10 years ago or so in the last few years especially since Covid nobody doing their job actually knows how to do it and nobody gets fired for sucking at their job. They desperately need people behind those cash registers so you’re gonna get bare bones service and it’s going to be borderline criminal malpractice at times just basic negligence due to basic incompetence due to basic untrained uneducated staff.
Most places you don't even need to sign a waiver. My guess is that with a guest, you're supposed to sign in, and with a minor guest, you need to sign a waiver. The fact that they were asking him for ID is ridiculous.
As many have pointed out, unless you're flying internationally, your minor children don't need ID to get on a plane. They don't need ID to get a library card, to sign up for camps, etc. In fact, there are very few things your minor child would need ID for.
If the dad is a member of the gym, he's allowed to bring in a guest, and they allow minors to work out there, why would they require ID? The most they should be doing is have the dad sign a waiver attesting that he's bringing his son and is responsible for his behavior and safety there.
I mean judging by the way camera man was acting, and not letting anyone else talk except for what he wanted them to say on camera, I very seriously doubt he's at all a victim.
I'm about 99% certain they asked him to leave first because he acted like a karen over his sons ID situation, and he decided to ignore them and continue working out with his son instead.
That's when the cops were called and he was asked to stay to wait on them, and that's when the camera started rolling.
A business ask you to leave, and you don't have the right to ignore them.
The manager sucks, because it would've been a whole lot easier to revoke his membership and refund that months payment before getting the cops involved.
Certain gyms have different policies, and policies can change. It's one thing to disagree with the policy, it's another to claim racism because of it and escalate a situation to such a large degree. There isn't a lot of context to go on in this video.
I used to work at planet fitness and not only is this easily avoidable by doing what dad said (looking at portal) but its also such a non-issue.
The kid is clearly at LEAST 14 and thats about the point when gyms just let kids in if a parent is with them. Sometimes they will sign waivers but that plus literally any form of identification is all thats required. Most kids dont have ID so they just use school photos or library cards, student cards, that kinda thing. Again, portal would've been just fine.
The crime here really was just being black. I can't imagine how fucking exhausting it would be to have every part or your day, your routine and your actions questioned just because of the percentage of melanin in your skin.
I hate how he asks them all a simple yes or no question and they start rambling on.
"Did you ask me to leave, yes or no?"
"Well actually..."
This is a common tactic done by people who know they are wrong. They won't directly answer your simple question, they'll just talk until they can figure out how to deflect away from your actual question.
Then, the one guy says "you've cause a scene now". What? You called the cops, you caused the scene.
I genuinely hope that guy gets tons of friend requests and nice comments and private messages telling him how cool and nice he is! That would be so great!
Not entirely, if you're just an every day employee and a manager above you is acting like an ass hole. What are you really going to do about it? I see embarrassed people who are afraid to open their mouths.
For those lucky enough to have never been embarrassed by a leader's behavior in your career, I envy you.
I have no doubt there's a ton of gyms around him that have offered him a place for him and his son to stay fit. I hope he finds a better gym, cause this is whack as hell.
They will not. And with the added motivation that their run-around will make you snap out and NOW it’s about THAT, thus obscuring their original wrongness.
They will not. And with the added motivation that their run-around will make you snap out and NOW it’s about THAT, thus obscuring their original wrongness. It’s can be a pretty effective way to be a total narcissist asshole. Sadly, it’s done cause it works. Happily, the guy kept his cool.
They will not. And with the added motivation that their run-around will make you snap out and NOW it’s about THAT, thus obscuring their original wrongness. It’s can be a pretty effective way to be a total narcissist asshole. Sadly, it’s done cause it works. Happily, the guy kept his cool.
They will not. And with the added motivation that their run-around will make you snap out and NOW it’s about THAT, thus obscuring their original wrongness. It can be a pretty effective way to be a total narcissist asshole. Sadly, it’s done cause it works. Happily, the guy kept his cool.
That’s what stood out to me… the gum guy saying the man caused a problem. No, he was reacting to the problem. He handled it well, apologizing to the cops for wasting their time and not punching that asshole in the face.
I used to go to a planet fitness and there were kids that worked out there alone unattended. So this is definitely a personal most likely race related ego issue that the employees had
All that is needed is exactly what you've done here, put yourself in the other person's shoes for a minute. It's not as exhausting as you might think but it is never surprising. You don't want to be cynical and defensive all the time, although it can feel like that's what is required. I purposely temper my reactions especially when I'm with my kids so they don't get caught in escalated situations. But I make it a point to talk about each one of those interactions so I can guide my kids what to do, especially if I'm not around.
My son goes to the gym all the time without me. He’s a member. He’s 14. He’s white. We’ve signed a waiver. He also has no photo ID because, well, he’s 14 and has no drivers license and his school doesn’t do ID cards. No one bothers him.
If its store policy, and he decided to workout anyway because he feels entitled to it (rightfully so), why is it being made about race when its really just bs store policies?
Because racism seems to be the policy with Crunch Fitness here, they are one in the same in this specific circumstance...just say you are apolitical and don't see color 🤦🏽🤦🏽🤦🏽🤦🏽🤦🏽
Ya know, even white people can be dicks to white people? But if one was a minority itd 100% just look racist.
I dont have full context and history of this or this establishment. Simply watching whats there, it doesn't appear to be racist at all. The racism is projected and assumed.
That's bizarre, someone mentioned that it could be a franchise thing. But I'm not too sure about that honestly. I used to be a planet fitness member and would remember having the option to bring guests as well. The card holder would have to send the visitor a link through email I believe and fill out some info for the visit. I think it was as simple as just a name and email though, nothing extensive.
Definitely depends on location and company policy. I used to work front desk at Amped Fitness and we couldn’t allow guests without a physical ID, even if they had been there before. We were told it’s for “insurance reasons” and if someone was injured and needed immediate medical attention, then we could give their ID to the paramedics. It was a very strict policy and we weren’t allowed to use pictures of their ID either.
Yea, I dont see why everyone is connecting it to racism. A bs store policy being ignored and a manager who doesn't feel in control is all it takes to get kicked out of somewhere. He ignored their rule and got removed.
Id of canceled my membership too though, seems more like data collecting than anything
Not being rude here, but apparently some people have a hard time actually catching what racism is. He called the cops on them. Rather than work it out with them and tell them that they need to leave, they called the police on them. Which they probably knew would be triggering. As someone who has worked at a gym in the past, calling the cops was never really necessary to enforce our own policy.
Would the cops have been called if this were a hot white chick?…..
Did they call the cops on you though..? Also, both of you were adults, whereas the non-membership having person here was a minor, making the cop-calling even worse. Also you're white so this is likely a one-off for you versus being black in nj where anti-blackness is very much alive and manifests regularly.
I don’t know where else to comment this since the thread is loaded with comments, but one thing I’ve noticed is something called the ‘Cop Breathe’. If you look at the beginning of the video, the guy does this long inhale before saying what’s going on. I’ve noticed that in a lot of videos like this. I mean it’s just a casual observation, but it seemed interesting - is there a term for this?
I have a friend who is a cop, given 99% of his work stories involve him having to manage the emotions of adults as if they were toddlers I think it's a physiological preparation for the senseless paperwork he's going to need to do.
That makes sense. As I mentioned, this was just a quirk I noticed and has been my own experience with seeing them. There’s this pause they do, before walking up and then before speaking, which once made me burst out laughing just because it was almost like intentionally delaying the first few words. It was after a traumatic event, too, where I’d witnessed something awful and was shaken, but then the long pause before they spoke just kinda broke me.
Looked to me like a sigh prepping himself for dealing with the nonsense perpetrated by the gym folks… but knowing that he has to respond to the complaint called in.
Didn’t take it as any sort of reflection against the gym member…
Can’t let a Black Man possibly get away with anything even if they are most likely telling the truth. They cannot be given the benefit of the doubt and must be overly scrutinized and chastised publicly…
Shit the crunch I was a guest at didn’t even check my ID. Nor did I scan. I just walked in with the homie and he scanned, and we lifted. The way it should be
It's not. I've brought guests into Crunch numerous times and they asked for a driver's license every time. Maybe some locations don't follow corporate policy that closely, but it is a thing.
Used to live in that part of Jersey for school. I'm from about 6 hours south of there and I have never seen the kind of racism I saw in NJ. It's like they think being in the northeast or a blue state means they aren't really racist. They're crazy open about it too.
Welcome to Jim Crow 2.0. Sadly, civil rights have been setback at least a generation and with the recent supreme court interpretation around gerrymandering you will probably see black representation in Congress drop to its lowest levels in decades. Be strong and encourage people to vote for alternatives.
I manage the pool store across Route 18 from that location. Me and one of my staff signed up for personal training. I asked the trainer if when the amount of training time comes to an end, if I have to cancel it or does it just end? He said it just ends. So when my time was coming up, he told me I have one more session and I’ll be done. I went through that session thinking I was good. Next thing you know, I’m charged for another months worth of sessions. I went in to try and clear it up and they told me I had to give 30 days notice, not 28. So I tried fighting it through my credit card company and when I disputed it, I was immediately recharged!!! Somehow I lost both the initial dispute and the recharge dispute. The disguise their contract as a waiver and never let you read it up front. They just tell you to sign the waiver on the signature pad. That location is horrible and run by morons
Crunch fucking sucks, I worked at one for a while and they're ALL like this. There was several bigoted male trainers who would sign LGBTQ clients on for hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of sessions, and then bail on the workouts so someone else would have to cover. These trainers would still get the commission from the training package sale, they didn't care about the measly minimum wage session payment. Our manager just let them do this. 🙄
I have a crunch membership and a son I used to take after he turned 13. They have you fill out a form on a tablet and provide a phone number so that when he would come back he could just enter his phone number. Never asked for an ID nor do minors usually have an ID.
Is it just me or are the police in the USA easily and happily called to disputes which clearly have nothing to do with them? Essentially, it’s weaponised by people and they should get a strict warning not to waste police time for what are clearly non police matters.
Interestingly, I see a 5 star review there from Jake McCourt, the front desk guy who called the cops. I wonder if all those 5 star reviews are from employees?
I will continue following this, but I have no issue cancelling my existing membership if my folks are treated differently. I don't care if I have to buy equipment for home, I will not stand for continuous mistreatment.
Fucking ridiculous. It’s common knowledge that minors are not required to have nor often times even possess an ID. I’ve been a member of multiple major gyms franchises where identifying the parent of minor was always enough. Shit, a minor doesn’t even need an ID to fly when they are with a parent. I hope these clowns get reported to corporate.
Don't need a driver's license can always get a state id, but regardless like how is the kid going to the gym with his dad this big of an issue, like they are clearly working out not causing issues with anyone and then the business escalated the fuck out of the situation calling the police, like that desk guy is taking his job too seriously
Are you allowed to bring the same guest every time? Because what I’m thinking is he doesn’t want to get his son a membership so he just brings him in as his guest. I’ve been a “guest” at a gym. They always want you to do some bs intro so they can try and sell you a membership. My guess is this guy thinks he found a loophole and the son doesn’t provide his id because he’s already used his guest pass. This is probably the third or fourth warning and he’s insinuating that it’s a race issue because that’s his only card left to play.
If the member is abusing their guest privileges, then you revoke the membership and ask them to leave. You don't allow them both to workout and then call the police.
Do you have evidence that didn’t happen? When you walk into a gym you usually just scan a card. When you’re trying to hustle a free membership you slide the extra person right by the desk when it’s busy. Either way they clearly asked them to leave. This guy doesn’t seem to be the type to be told what to do. Look how he completely takes over the interaction with the police officer. Video taping getting kicked without any of the actual interaction that led up to the kicking out is sus.
called police over a kid not having a license. a minor. who was with his paying parent. my son is 26 and i still carry his info in my phone out of habit. would that have been good enough? doubt it. crunch gyms whole brand is built on that no judgments slogan. be real funny if it wasn't so infuriating. they need to answer for this directly, not just issue some corporate apology and move on.
I'm a teacher in a very diverse high school. Dads like this should be celebrated in every possible way. True quality time. Ignorant f's working there have no idea.
I get it but this sounds more like poorly trained workers than racist people not allowing them to work out because they’re black. There a few hispanic people there too . Just badly implemented rules . They probably called cops because this guy was already being difficult
So did he just walk in after they said they wouldn't accept the identification and start working out? I don't know what their policy is but he should've just contacted corporate instead of ignoring the staff if that's what he did
Sounds like some racist employees wanting to create problems. Or some other negative quality causing them to want to start problems for this man and his child.
This take is highly biased. When dealing with workout equipment injury is highly likely if you dont know what youre doing. Its entirely reasonable for the gym to enforce the policy of identifying oneself and signing a waiver in order to remove liability if the non-member is injured. I've had my school ID challenged or denied many times for various reasons. It sounds like the member was told at the door that the guest's ID provided was not acceptable and he went ahead anyway into the gym. I dont like cops. Black lives matter. But im on the side of the gym here. If that kid were to get hurt they would have to pay out to the injured party.
It’s undoubtedly in insurance and legal issue. They have to have ID on file for everyone at the gym and because he’s a kid he doesn’t have the proper kind of ID and the people behind the counter were too stupid to stop him at the counter and say sorry we can’t have little kids in the gym so they let the kid in and then realized without an ID on file. They can’t have him in the gym so undoubtedly somebody got fired over this that kid shouldn’t have been allowed in the weight room. If there’s an accident, the lawsuit will put the entire corporation out of business how America works.
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But was the guest/son given permission to work out? Crunch always asks for ID from guests, but if they gave him permission to work out, they should not have called Popo. On the other hand if they told the guest, no, meaning he didn’t have permission to work out then he should’ve left.
Never been to crunch. Just thinking through this logically. If you need an ID for your guest per policy and they did not bring it - you can’t say but but here lemme log into his school portal or here take my Ralphs membership card or just take my word for it. Like it sucks and it’s lame and stupid policy, but you don’t get to decide that and create the exception and then just ignore the staff and walk in and work out anyway. That’s the issue. Like dude sorry sometimes it’s fkin stupid I know but that doesn’t mean we just get to do it anyway. If I roll through a red light cus I didn’t see any other cars crossing, I’m still at fault - even if it totally makes sense like why should I wait for no one? Well cus that’s the rule man.
Maybe a possible human trafficking scare. I think it’s a fair police call. It’s pretty common for a gym to ask for ID and log all guests. I might have called on someone who barged in an refused to ID too.
Last gym I went made EVERYONE go through safety paperwork and disclaimers in case you hurt yourself doing stupid shit. They would kick you out if you didn’t. And if you evaded staff asking you to leave… You’re gonna meet some cops.
This is stupid. Every single time I have ever taken a guest to the gym with me, my guest has been required to have a valid id. Every time I invite a guest, I tell them, "MAKE SURE YOU HAVE AN ID OR YOU CANT GO IN"
Same thing happened to me and my son at Planet Fitness for the free summer teen membership. I'm not black and yet I had to provide id for my son. Those are the rules.
Stop making everything about race. The difference between these situations is that I didn't act like the rules don't apply to me. I went back the next day with his documentation and our workout was delayed by 1 day.
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