A Black woman was ticketed with a $385 fine because she was talking too loudly on her cell phone.
As Fox 2 Detroit reported, Diamond Robinson was having a phone conversation on Thursday (May 27) in her Eastpointe neighborhood. As she walked up and down her block, a resident who recently moved to the area asked her to lower her voice or end the call altogether. She responded, telling the person to “get out of my face” and proceeded on with her phone call; the neighbor went on to call the police.
When responding officers arrived moments later, Robinson told them that she was documenting the encounter on Facebook Live.
“And I hope you know this is all being recorded,” she is heard saying in the video. “I’m not doing anything wrong by walking up and down the street, talking on my phone.”
Robinson was eventually issued a $385 ticket for public nuisance, which she believes was racially motivated.
“You can’t tell me that I’m not being harassed because baby I am…,” she said. “I’ve been living in Eastpointe for five years, and I know what public nuisance is…There’s no way police should be called on me when I am on my own property, in my own neighborhood, on my own block.”
The neighbor refused to comment on the situation, noting the ticket “speaks for itself.” As for the officers’ response, they said Robinson would have her day in court.
Robinson — who has since installed security cameras outside of her home — is preparing for the forthcoming court date to contest the citation.
“A lot of these things are being pushed under the rug and they don’t need to,” she told Fox 2 Detroit. “We can sit here all day, and we can chant, we can riot, and we can do all of those things. That is not going to make a change if you don’t speak up at that time, at that moment.”