It seems as if Black children can’t be Black children in peace and that their parents can’t watch them be children. At least that what it seems like after a white woman called the police on a black man who was cheering for his son at a soccer game.
According to the Huffington Post, the incident, which occurred in Florida, was recorded in photographs by another parent at the soccer match who said the father “was simply trying to watch his son’s soccer game and cheer for him.”
Ginger Williams, the parent in question, wrote that the father told his son “The ref is right!” after seeing the child getting frustrated with a call.
Williams wrote:
This woman, lets call her Golfcart Gail, decided to spring into action and rapidly approach this parent and remind him that harassment would not be tolerated. He informed her that he was only speaking to his son. For whatever reason, Golfcart Gail just would not let this go. She continued to harass and beleaguer this parent. The gentleman offered to leave in order to avoid a situation. As he began to pack up his things Golfcart Gail informed him that she was calling the police because she no longer felt safe with his threatening behavior. This man was peacefully leaving his own son’s soccer game to avoid exactly this situation. What makes this even worse, is that a parent had actually been ejected from this game during the third period. There had to be a delay of game due to the disturbance yet, Golfcart Gail didn’t need to call the police on him. Why weren’t the police called? What was the difference? I’ll give you a guess.
SOCCER WHILE BLACK. A parent at my son’s soccer game had the police called on him for cheering for his son during the…
According to NBC News, “Golfcart Gail,” who hasn’t been formally identified, is a field marshal.
Another bystander, Maria Morales-Walter also recorded the incident, showing that the father was trying to defuse the situation. Morales-Walter told NBC that when officers arrived Golfcart Gail claimed that the father “was being aggressive” and “coming at her.”
However in the video Morales-Walter took, the most aggression that was shown was the father telling the field marshal “I wasn’t talking to you…I was talking to my son, and I still get this from you.”
The officer responding to the situation eventually told the father that there was no reason to arrest him, to which the field marshal said, “Good, I didn’t want anything like that done.”
So then why call the police on a man who was already preparing to leave? Is this fun and games to some people? Because it’s not fun and games to the Black people, some of whom have already died over ridiculous encounters like this.
