Oscar winner Forest Whitaker was wrongly accused of shoplifting and subjected to a humiliating pat down at a Morningside Heights deli on Friday morning.

If West Side Story were written today, "Officer Krupke" would contain at least a verse and a half about stop-and-frisk, the NYPD's favorite pastime. But in this case, no cops were called—Whitaker was publicly frisked by a Milano Deli employee, in what seems to be an instance of blatant discrimination.

Is it possible that the man had just Netflixed The Last King of Scotland and thought the brilliant actor was, in fact, the reprehensible Idi Amin himself? On second thought—nope, just blatant discrimination. Gothamist spoke with a regular deli patron who was present for the incident with Whitaker. She claims to have witnessed previous negative treatment of black customers by the store's employees, as well having heard staff spout "racist crap."

Classy as always, Whitaker (who came into the store to buy a yogurt—any forensic scientist worth his weight in old-timey fingerprint powder knows that yogurt and crime do not mix) agreed to the employee's request not to involve the authorities out of fear of losing his job. Good luck with that one, buddy.

[Image via Getty]