![]() Joseph points out that, in a country perpetually plagued with police killing unarmed Black and brown children, Lawshe should understand that he put her daughter in harm’s way. Joseph that had he known that it was her daughter that he had seen, he certainly would not have called the police. Lawshe had no reason to believe that he would be putting anyone in harm’s way by calling the police.”Īccording to Mascera, Lawshe attempted to again apologize to Joseph and her daughter the following morning. Lawshe did not call 911 but called the police non-emergency dispatch line. Lawshe’s attorney, Gregory Mascera, told CNN in an emailed statement that, “He (Lawshe) did not want to become involved in a confrontation, so he called the Caldwell police to look into the matter. Ijeoma OparaĪccording to Joseph, Lawshe initially told her that he thought Bobbi was either a “lost little girl” or a “little old lady with dementia.” He immediately apologized, but Joseph couldn’t understand why he’d call the police instead of figuring out himself who the girl was, especially since their families knew each other and have been friendly for years. When asked for a description, Lawshe told the dispatcher that she was a “real tiny woman” and wearing a “hood.”īobbi was invited to tour Yale last week. In the call, Gordon Lawshe told the dispatcher, “There’s a little Black woman walking, spraying stuff on the sidewalks and trees on Elizabeth and Florence. So, when her neighbor’s call led to police stopping and questioning the child, Joseph said she was very confused and upset. “She’s going to kill the lanternflies, especially if they’re on a tree. On this fall morning, she was excited to see if the mixture whose recipe she found on Tik Tok would work. Once she found out the invasive species damages trees by feeding on the sap found in leaves and tree trunks, she wanted to stop the infestation. The 4th-grader had first learned about the spotted lanternfly last summer. On October 22, Bobbi was walking through her Caldwell, New Jersey, neighborhood, spraying a homemade mixture to kill lanternflies. How can a community learn and be better?” Joseph said to CNN Monday. “I want to move ahead with this and turn this into a positive situation. Nearly a month after a neighbor called police to report 9-year-old Bobbi Wilson, her mother Monique Joseph hopes the incident can spark a deeper dialogue around discrimination and the biases Black and brown children face. A little girl’s fascination with spotted lanternflies has forced a North New Jersey community to grapple with perceptions of racism and what happens when police are called on Black children.
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