Culture

Bob Marley's granddaughter alleges she was victim of racial profiling

May 11, 2018 05:29·
Donisha Prendergast

Donisha Prendergast

Prendergast shared her experience via a Facebook post claiming that cops demanded them to put their hands in the air and that they were told that a helicopter was in the area tracking their movements. The officers didn't know what Airbnb was, Prendergast said. "We want to meet with the Rialto Police Department, we will meet with the mayor, we will meet with Airbnb, we will meet with the neighbor, we will meet with the homeowner, we will meet with the community members, ones who have been affected by this moment and even before this moment", Predergast said. "She then called the police", Fyffe-Marshall wrote. At first, the renters "joked about the misunderstanding", she said, but the situation escalated after 20 minutes when a sergeant arrived.

National outrage followed the arrest of two black men in a Philadelphia Starbucks; a group of black women had police called on them for golfing too slowly in York County, Pennsylvania; and two Native American brothers had a college visit in Colorado cut short when a parent told a 911 dispatcher that their behaviour and clothing was suspicious.

Now, the attorneys want the woman held accountable and are calling for the Rialto Police Department to conduct an investigation into officers' actions, claiming their clients' constitutional rights under the 4th and 14th Amendments were violated. She said the incident left the group traumatized, angry, frustrated, and sad.

"I can not get into the caller's head, beyond that she thought she was seeing a crime", Hardin said. The group were "immediately released without incident" after the incident, the release states.

On April 30, Prendergast and her friends, two of whom are black women, were leaving an Airbnb rental in Rialto, California when they found themselves surrounded by police.

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According to a report from CBS LA, the incident, which was tagged as racial profiling by Prendergast, resulted from the fact that the owner of the Airbnb property, Marie Rodriguez, had not told her neighbor that the home was being rented. Fyffe-Marshall and a man, Komi-Oluwa Olafimihan, were also listed on the legal notification with Prendergast. As a result, Prendergast and her friends almost went to jail because they were Black in a White community.

Airbnb said in a statement to CNN that it has reached out to the friends to "express our sympathy and full support".

Airbnb said that what happened to the guests in Rialto was "unconscionable".

Airbnb has responded by creating policies that will punish users who discriminate against Blacks. Still, they say they have not ruled out future legal action. The men said they were waiting on an acquaintance. She said that it was their rudeness and behavior that prompted the neighbor to call the cops. "And our department is receiving, across social media platforms, including the media, ridicule, and, frankly, it's not fair", said the police chief during Tuesday's press conference. Starbucks apologized and reached an undisclosed settlement with the men. The filmmakers, three of whom are black, say they were racially profiled.

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