Calling the police on Black folks for doing absolutely nothing is a form of intimidation. Not only that, it should be considered a hate crime and put into law as such.
That’s what New York State Senator Jesse Hamilton said, after a Donald Trump supporter chastised one of his constituents for handing out campaign flyers that read “fight back [against] Trump.”
Hamilton was campaigning outside of a Brooklyn subway station when the woman said that he and the Democrats were dividing the country by attacking the president.
She also spoke with a thick European accent but ironically felt that Hamilton’s stance on the topic of immigration is much too lenient.
After the woman voiced her disapproval of the senator, she called 911 on him, and police from the 71st Precinct arrived. Afterward, they determined the call was unnecessary and no police action was needed.
“Waiting for your friends at a Starbucks is not a 911 call — it’s a call of intimidation,” said Hamilton, mentioning Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson, the two men who were arrested for merely sitting inside the coffee chain. “That’s gonna be a hate crime. This pattern of calling the police on Black people going about their business and participating in the life of our country has to stop.”
Hamilton’s announcement comes after what seems like daily news stories about white folks calling police on Black people for living life and doing everyday things, as he stated.
For example, in the summer of 2018 alone, the cops were called on a 12-year-old Black kid for delivering newspapers on his paper route and a CVS manager in Chicago phoned police after a woman tried to use a coupon, which he thought was fraudulent.
Additionally, a woman called 911 on a Black Yale student for sleeping in a communal space, and a Black business owner was reported to police after he tried to open up his store first in the morning.
Similar to what Hamilton went through, someone called the police on Janelle Bynum, a Black state legislator in Oregon, for putting up campaign literature in her very own district.
“The pattern of targeting Black men and women for being Black and alive in the communities we all share has to stop,” said Hamilton.