Being a good Kossack living in the reality-based community, I read through the comments, find the original poster's link to the electronic copy, and go look. Yup, sure enough, there it is. Let me reiterate what the report says:
A report of two kids bike riding at 9:34 a.m. Monday at Indianhead Circle. Caller reports it is suspicious because the kids on the bikes were black.
Now, a quick check of the Marblehead Public Schools page shows that Wednesday September 2nd was the first day of school, so a logical reason to call is because kids weren't at school; although MA has no set first day of school and every district is on its own, so not everyone was back by then. But no, the ONLY reason the caller reported the kids at 9:34am is
because they were black. A few tidbits from the
demographics data for Marblehead:
Population: a little under 20000
Median age: 46, a little older than MA median 39
Median household income: $98700, about $30K higher than MA in general
Racial makeup: 93.8% White, 2.3% Hispanic, 0.9% black, 3% multiracial, Asian, or Native American.
I've been to Marblehead many times since I first visited just out of college while dating a guy from there. But if I take my kid there, I gotta worry some busybody peeking out of their window is gonna report us because OMG the kid is BLACK!!!1!!1!!!??
Wonder why #BlackLivesMatter is important? Because this. Two kids riding bikes get reported to the cops for the single, solitary reason that they're Not White.
It's important to mention there is NO record of the cops actually doing anything with that information thankfully, although I would have liked to see "Well-being check on complainant led to hospitalization for dementia" but alas, no. I also am NOT demonizing the entire population of Marblehead here, either, because I know some very good people passionate about ending racism. What I am doing is expressing shock and outrage that anyone would think that calling to report suspicious activity using simply race as a reason is ok.
I realize this is a short diary, but I'm full of feels, none of them good right now.
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