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Black Woman Fined £271 For 'Talking Too Loudly' On Phone

Black Woman Fined £271 For 'Talking Too Loudly' On Phone

Diamond Robinson believes she was targeted because she is black

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

A woman claims she was issued a $385 (£271) fine for 'talking too loudly' on the phone, saying she thinks she was targeted because she's black.

Diamond Robinson says she was walking along the street where she lives in Eastpointe, Michigan, when one of her neighbours approached her, asking her to stop speaking on the phone so loudly.

The neighbour, a white woman, reportedly asked her: "Do you think that you can get off your phone or talk lower?"

Speaking to Fox 2 Detroit, Robinson said: "And I said 'Get out of my face,' and I proceeded to walk past her. She is saying whatever she is saying, three minutes later, Eastpointe police pulls up."

Fox

Robinson started a Facebook Live video to document what was happening, saying in the clip: "I'm not doing anything wrong by walking up and down the street talking on my phone."

Officers eventually wrote her a $385 ticket for 'public nuisance', prompting her to exclaim: "I get a ticket for being a public nuisance because I'm talking too loud on my phone?

"That's why I got a ticket?"

Fox

According to Fox, Robinson believes race played a part in what happened, which was why she decided to stream the incident on Facebook.

She continued: "A lot of these things are being pushed under the rug and they don't need to.

"We can sit here all day and we can chant, we can riot, and we can do all of those things (but) that is not going to make a change if you don't speak up at that time, at that moment."

Robinson plans to fight the ticket, and has also installed security cameras outside her house.

Asked what she wanted to say to her neighbour, Robinson said: "Leave me alone, what's going on, are you upset? What did I do to you?"

Fox

Eastpointe Police have since said that officers tried to talk to Robinson but she refused, and that they believed she would have continued to be loud after they left so issued her the civil infraction citation.

They also said she refused to accept the ticket when officers tried to hand it to her, adding that the option they took was the 'least intrusive', as opposed to arresting Robinson or issuing her a misdemeanour violation.

Police also said Robinson later went to file a complaint about her neighbour, who also called the police to make a separate complaint about her - claiming she had been 'posting threatening, harassing, and intimidating messages' about her on social media.

In a statement to Fox, the force said: "The officers acted professionally when speaking with Ms. Robinson. Officers respond to all police dispatches and had no option but to go to the scene of the complaint. We expect our officers to maintain public peace. This can often be accomplished through discussions and negotiations, but sometimes enforcement action has to be taken," police said in a statement.

According to Fox, the neighbor did not wish to speak about the incident, but said the fine 'speaks for itself'.

Featured Image Credit: Fox

Topics: News, US News