Yet again in Ohio, a woman calls the cops on a Black boy for doing an honest job in the neighborhood.
As 12-year-old Uriah Sharp walked up to homes in Upper Arlington on Friday to deliver newspapers, a neighbor watched him. It was obvious what he was doing, nevertheless, she became suspicious and notified Upper Arlington Police.
“I noticed they were walking up to houses with nothing in hand and one of them came back with something,” the 911-caller told authorities, according to WSYX-TV.
Uriah’s mother, Brandie Sharp, who was with him, along with her older son, Mycah, said her son only went to retrieve newspapers they had mistakenly delivered.
“We had delivered to the wrong houses,” Sharp told the news channel, “so he went to go grab the newspapers to make sure everything was okay.”
Sharp wrote about the experience in a Facebook post:
“First day of paper route and we are pulled over by police.
“Sad, I can’t even teach my son the value of working without someone whispering and looking at us out the side of their eye perhaps because we DON’T ‘look like a person that belongs in their neighborhood.’
“Police officer pulls up and asks us questions as if we were intruding in their area. Totally disgusted and disturbed that this kind of behavior still exist.”
Sharp said when the officer approached them, she explained they were delivering newspapers.
“I showed him the thing for the Dispatch, The Bag, the midday week paper, that we get,” she told WSYX-TV, “and he said ‘Oh, really’ and by that time I was kind of like, ‘Okay, why are you questioning me about this'”
Authorities then came to the grand conclusion that the mother and her sons were just delivering newspapers.
“We sent an officer out to take a look at it,” said Officer Bryan McKean. “When our officer arrived on [the] scene, he very quickly determined very quickly that these individuals were delivering the newspaper.”
Sharp said she’s changing her son’s newspaper route.
“My apologies Upper Arlington for bringing my 12-year-old African American son into your neighborhood to deliver the paper and make a few dollars on the side … NO HARM INTENDED,” she posted on Facebook. “I will make sure my boss changes his route.”
Related Story: White Neighbors Call Cops on Black Kid Lawn Mowing — ‘Who Does That’
Similarly, last month, and then again on July 4, a neighbor called the cops on 12-year-old Reggie Fields for mowing lawns in his neighborhood of Maple Heights, outside of Cleveland.
