Photo via Diamond Robinson/Facebook
June 1, 2021, 11:41 am
A Black woman in Michigan had the police called on her and received a $385 ticket for doing normal person things in her own neighborhood after a new neighbor, who is white, decided she was talking too loudly on the phone. The woman, Diamond Robinson, captured video of the three police officers who arrived to deal with the alleged “noise complaint” over her talking on her cellphone while going on a walk around the area in which she lives.
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The Facebook Live video lasts nearly 25 minutes as Robinson tries to figure out why she is being harassed by the police for talking on the phone outside. It starts with one officer threatening her with jail time for refusing to go inside, as is her legal right as a citizen of a supposedly free country that isn’t a police state for certain races, and Robinson trying to educate them on basic law.
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What a beautiful morning as I am minding my own business walking up and down the block that I pay property taxes on my neighbor Rebecca comes across the street with her large dog and tell me like hey I am I think you’re talking too loud on your phone I work from home and my boss was trying to figure out why was the person on the phone talking so loud so I politely tell her to stop talking to me and I walk away from her several minutes later three Eastpointe police officers pull up and tell me that I am not allowed to walk up and down my block while talking on my phone and give me a $400 ticket and also threaten to take me to jail. He tells me to go in my house
. I hope I’m not the next victim of Black Lives Matter
but if so fuck it because I will do what the fuck I wanna do.
Posted by Diamond Robinson on Thursday, May 27, 2021
“You show me a law stating that I’m not allowed to talk on my phone. ‘Cause best believe Eastpointe will be hearing from me because you’re harassing me,” she says before addressing her viewers. “They tell me that I’m gonna go to jail for being on my phone walking up and down my block where I pay taxes at, then they’re asking me where do I live?”
Robinson ended up calling the local news to report on what happened, having no faith in the police to uphold justice, as she fights the “public nuisance” ticket in court. Her neighbor, who is identified by Robinson as “Rebecca,” apparently didn’t like this intrusion into her everyday life because it was disruptive and could potentially put her safety at risk. Imagine that?
According to Robinson, Rebecca was concerned about “sort of criminal charges about a restraining order that she got out on someone,” and now that she’s called the police on a Black woman for existing in a public space, she “is afraid, don’t want her house on the news and she don’t want them to know where she lives.”
“If someone is trying to hurt you, do you think it’s a good idea for you to call the Eastpointe police on your neighbor that is walking up and down the block that is clearly minding her own business?” Robinson ponders.
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Just got done interviewing with Fox 2 to just found out that the lady across the street named Rebecca there is some sort of criminal charges about a restraining order that she got out on someone and is the safety of the protection of her life and she is afraid don’t want her house on the news and she don’t want them to know where she lives. Its too late and if someone is trying to hurt you do you think it’s a good idea for you to call the Eastpointe police on your neighbor that is walking up and down the block that is clearly minding her own business. You can’t be afraid of the the person you have a restraining order against if you are walking up to me 5 houses down on the opposite street of your home and telling me that I’m talking 2 loud. You lack intelligence and clearly feel that you are entitled which you are not Rebecca. You are harassing and calling the cops on me, not to mention you just moved over here in this neighborhood. I’m not done the world
will know about all of you KARENS IN THESE NEIGHBORHOODS!!!!!!! You don’t own me I will walk and talk as I please thank you
Posted by Diamond Robinson on Thursday, May 27, 2021
Rebecca claimed when she first approached her neighbor that she was working from home and could hear Robinson from all the way inside of her home, alleging that her boss on the phone was complaining about the loud talking. Rather than closing a window, Rebecca decided to make this into a larger problem. Even though Robinson left the area outside of Rebecca’s home to walk elsewhere, the white neighbor still called the cops on her.
Naturally, Robinson believes that there is racism in the works in this issue, well aware of the harmful stereotype of the “loud Black woman” in spite of the fact that everyday loud activities like mowing the lawn don’t get the cops called on white folks. She further accused the police of making things up in an attempt to intimidate her.
“What is your name, officer, who told me that I can go to jail for being outside talking on my cell phone?” she asks him. “Where did you get that law that I can go to jail by being on my phone? You just made that up because I’m Black?”
The Eastpointe Police Department’s response to this incident was to threaten that they could have violently arrested the Black woman and thrown her in jail for the crime of talking while Black instead of only trying to make her pay nearly $400 for being on the phone outside.
“Based on Ms. Robinson’s responses, the officers believed that the disorderly behavior would continue when they left,” they told Insider. “The officers opted to use the least intrusive resolution for the situation by issuing a civil infraction citation rather than misdemeanor violations and/or arrest.”
Curiously, Rebecca was not cited for the disorderly behavior of interrupting Robinson’s phone conversation directly.
*First Published: June 1, 2021, 11:41 am
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