A Wisconsin woman was arrested twice after she was filmed spitting on a Black teenager during a protest over the weekend.
Stephanie Rapkin, 64, was arrested on Saturday night, a few hours after the altercation, reported The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. In a video filmed by witness Caress Gonzalez Ramirez, Rapkin is seen arguing with several people after she used her car to halt a march in Shorewood, Wisconsin. As the demonstrators try to persuade her to move her vehicle, 17-year-old Eric Lucas steps in front of her.
They engaged in a shouting match for a few seconds before she spat in the boy’s face. Before Lucas could react, several people formed a physical barrier to prevent the situation from escalating. Ilijah Taylor Jordan was one of those people.
“I was making sure none of us made the wrong decision that would lead the whole protest, the whole marching, everything we did in the wrong direction,” Jordan told TMJ4. “Spit we can wipe that off, we are going to keep moving, she’s just a little factor, an obstacle that we will come over as we are marching.”
Lucas admitted he was shaken by the incident and could not understand the source of Rapkin’s vitriol.
“Again and again, I’m viewed not as a child but as a color,” Lucas said during a press conference on Monday.
Rapkin was arrested a few hours after Saturday’s incident and released. Less than 24 hours later, she was arrested again on charges of assaulting two people, including a police officer. The second incident happened on Sunday afternoon after she caught Joe Friedman scribbling protest messages in chalk on the sidewalk in front of Rapkin’s house. He wrote several messages, including “Be better than this” and “I spit on a child. How dare you!”
Rapkin confronted Friedman and the two had a verbal altercation on her front lawn. While she was explaining her reasoning for spitting on Lucas, she pushed Friedman with both hands and stormed back into her house.
“You just put your hands on me,” Friedman said in the video. “That is assault right there. Wow, I just got that on video, ma’am.”
Friedman filmed part of their encounter, including the push, and his mother posted it on Facebook. Another person called the police, but when they showed up Rapkin was belligerent while she was being placed under arrest, police said. While the cops were cuffing her, she kneed one of the officers in the groin. She was eventually taken into custody. Rapkin is facing several charges including battery, resisting and obstructing an officers, disorderly conduct and battery to law enforcement. She was booked into Milwaukee County Jail and her bail was set for $950.
WISN 12 News reported Rapkin is a real estate, probate and tax lawyer and there have been calls for her to be disbarred. The State Bar of Wisconsin condemned her behavior in a statement posted on Twitter.
“As the leadership of the State Bar of Wisconsin, we are disturbed and disgusted by the actions of an attorney who allegedly spat in the face of a protester during a demonstration on Saturday,” the organization tweeted.
“We do not condone this behavior under any circumstance – period. The State Bar of Wisconsin champions integrity, civility, and respect in dealings with the public, colleagues, clients, and the courts.”
The state bar also explained it did not have the authority to disbar Rapkin.
The statement continued, “While the State Bar has no authority to discipline lawyers, the State of Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation investigates complaints and ultimately the Wisconsin Supreme Court imposes sanctions on licensed attorneys.”
