NEW YORK CITY — Picketers headed for the Manhattan storefront of Barneys New York, Inc. on Wednesday, October 30, to express outrage over complants from black customers, that they were stopped by police after making luxury purchases there.

Four black shoppers have said they were stopped and detained in separate incidents at both Barneys and Macy’s and later released without charges.

The two retailers and the New York Police Department traded blame on Tuesday over the “shop and frisk” incidents, nicknamed by tabloids after the controversial “stop and frisk” policing tactic that has been ruled unconstitutional for targeting blacks and Hispanics.

Barneys and Macy’s officials said police had acted on their own, without input from store staff, in choosing to stop shoppers who included Rob Brown, a black actor with a role on the HBO series “Treme.”

On Tuesday, New York civil rights leader Al Sharpton met with Barneys Chief Executive Officer Mark Lee, who said his employees had no part in two incidents at his stores. Likewise, a Macy’s spokeswoman denied that any staff member had a role in two incidents there.

NYPD chief spokesman John McCarthy countered those claims, saying that in both incidents at Barneys and the case involving Brown at Macy’s, officers were acting on information provided by store security. The cases are still under investigation by the attorney general.