The countless unnecessary calls to police on Black people is becoming a trend and this time a 12-year-old boy was a victim of racially profiling.
Brandie Sharp and her two children 17-year-old Mycah and her youngest son 12-year-old Uriah were on Barrington Road in Upper Arlington, Ohio delivering the daily newspapers when she was met by a police officer.
The mother told ABC6/FOX28 she and her sons were delivering “The Bag” newspaper ads Friday evening to Arlington porches when she noticed a police car pull up.
“I showed him the thing for the Dispatch, The Bag, the midday week paper, that we get,” she said, “and he said ‘Oh, really?’ and by that time I was kind of like, ‘Okay, why are you questioning me about this?’,” Sharp said.
It was the family’s first day on the route and they’d accidentally delivered the newspapers to the wrong homes. Her 12-year-old “went to go grab the newspapers to make sure everything was okay.”
Unfortunately, one of the residents called the authorities and reported “suspicious” behavior. The unidentified woman told dispatch, “It looked like at first they were delivering newspapers or something, but I noticed they were walking up to the houses with nothing in hand and one of them came back with something,” said the caller to Upper Arlington Police, “I mean, I don’t want to say something was going on, but it just but it just seemed kind of suspicious.”
Sharp told the news station she was trying to teach her sons the importance of “work.” She also felt she was treated unfairly by Arlington officer and said her son was racially discriminated against.
“Something as simple as delivering papers and it turns out to be I have to be racially profiled?” the mother said.
The police department said that race was not a factor regarding this incident.
“I would say to anyone who feels like their interaction with us was not professional and not to the highest standard, to contact us directly,” said Officer Bryan McKean.
Sharp posted the incident on Facebook and wrote, “Police officer pulls up and ask us questions as if we were intruding in their area. Totally disgusted and disturbed that this kind of behavior still exist.”
https://www.facebook.com/brandie.sharp/posts/10212139882229233
