(via GOP New Jersey Official Called Cops on 9-Year-Old Black Girl Catching Spotted Lanternflies)
A former city council member of a New Jersey town and local Republican Party leader allegedly called the police on a 9-year-old Black girl when he saw her catching spotted lanternflies—an invasive species killing trees in the area—while wearing a hoodie, the girl’s mother, Monique Joseph, said at a local board meeting last week.
“There’s a little Black woman walking, spraying stuff on the sidewalks and trees. I don’t know what the hell she’s doing, it scares me though.”
An October issue of The Progress quite literally spotlights Bobbi’s work to combat the environmentally hazardous invasive species in the community. “She was not only doing something amazing for our environment, she was doing something that made her feel like a hero,” Hayden said. “Our neighbor across the street…decided it would be appropriate to call the police on my sister.”
According to Joseph, Gordon Lawshe—the former council member for Caldwell, New Jersey, who’s also her neighbor—told police, “There’s a little Black woman walking, spraying stuff on the sidewalks and trees. I don’t know what the hell she’s doing, it scares me though.” Joseph’s daughter is, again, 9. The allegation speaks to the widespread crisis of young Black girls being adultified, placing them at greater risk of police violence, sexual violence, and harsher disciplinary action in schools that feeds the school-to-prison pipeline.
Can someone please get Gordon a wooby to hold when he feels scared
A 9 year old is “a little black WOMAN”? And also, scary to an ADULT MAN? Who is, actually, a neighbour? Are all republican politicians absolute cowards and sleaze-balls? This is revolting on a visceral level 🤮🤬
This man, looking at a young child: What is this, a small woman?