April 08, 2020 / By mobanmarket
BROOKLINE, MA — A Jamaica Plain man posted a video on social media that shows a woman threatening to pepper-spray him because his dog wasn’t on a leash and then questioning his citizenship. The video has been commented on hundreds of times, prompting a conversation about racism in the Boston area.
“There’s racism, and people can be cruel, especially when they’re coming from a position of power,” Mohamed, who posted the video to his Facebook page Monday night, told Patch. “It’s important for people to be aware that this kind of thing happens and it’s not often on video. People often dismiss it as over-exaggeration.”
Mohamed, who moved to Jamaica Plain about a month ago, asked that his last name not be used.
The encounter happened after a spate of similar incidents recorded on video across the country, including one involving a white woman in North Carolina calling black patrons of a restaurant a racial slur because she thought they were being too loud.
Brookline leaders say the encounter with a woman believed to be from Brookline shows that Brookline is not immune from larger social problems.
“It just makes me so sad, honestly,” said Brookline Select Board member Raul Fernandez, who ran for office on a platform of diversity and inclusion. “It’s important for us to know that folks like this are out there, including in our own community, and really highlight the urgency of our work in addressing racism, xenophobia and other forms of oppression within our own community.”
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On Monday, Mohamed was walking his dog, Divva, along the edge of Ward’s Pond near the Brookline–Jamaica Plain border when a woman’s yellow Labrador started pulling in his dog’s direction. After she shouted “Stop!” to her dog, he told her to relax.
That’s when she threatened to pepper-spray his dog and call the police. He took out his camera and started recording, which is legal to do in public spaces as long as it is not secret.
“Massachusetts leash law, buddy,” she says, walking away from the water’s edge after apparently finishing a phone call. “What you’re doing is illegal.”
“I hope this gives you fulfillment in life, calling the cops on people in the park,” he says.
“If you have a dog, you might as well be responsible about it,” she says, pointing at him.
She tells him, incorrectly, that filming someone without their permission is illegal in Massachusetts. She stops and appears to take out her phone and snap a picture of him and asks him if he’s familiar with the state leash law. Then the interaction takes another turn.
“Are you from the U.S.?” she says. “Are you from this country?”
“Oh, that’s what this is about,” says Mohamed.
“You seem to be completely ignorant of any law here,” she says.
She then warns him that he better have his paperwork in order as she walks off with her dog.
After Mohamed calls her a racist, she returns to confront him again, and threatens to pepper-spray him this time.
“Thinking back… she must have identified me speaking in a foreign language,” Mohamed told Patch, noting that he sometimes speaks on the phone in Arabic while walking his dog.
Mohamed said he too called Brookline police, telling them she threatened to pepper-spray him. He spoke to them in person and an officer told him to just avoid the woman. When he returned to the pond a short time later, he encountered the woman again, and she asked if he learned his lesson.
He went home and posted the interaction on Facebook. It was shared in several Boston area Facebook groups and hundreds of people commented:
“I’ve been to this particular pond in Olmsted many times, and it’s pretty standard for owners to take their dogs off leash for a swim here,” one woman wrote in a private group. “I’ve seen it dozens of times. And if this lady has been there much at all, she’s seen it before too. My guess is that this wasn’t about an off-leash dog at all. It was about who was with that dog.
Also, even if Mohamed’s dog were completely running amuck in an area where off-leash dogs were not the norm, the blatant racism and xenophobia here is absolutely unacceptable.”
Many others apologized to him for having to go through that, others praised him, saying he reacted well. A handful asked why he didn’t just obey the leash law.
“Maybe you should have just obeyed the leash law?” one man wrote in a closed group. “I mean there are so many reasons you are wrong here. First she is completely right there is a leash law in Boston, second just because your dog is “ok” to be off leash you have no idea what the other dogs are like so when your unleashed dog approaches you have no idea what the other dogs reaction will be. There are people who are afraid of dogs and you having yours off leash creates a sense of dread for these people.”
Others jumped on those comments, saying it was beside the point.
“This was never about the leash,” wrote one woman. “She clearly outed herself, she was upset because she is racist. It is simple. And then she threatened assault. Both are against the law, one is actually dangerous and you’re picking the stupidest one to get upset about? This is a prime example of why petty laws which are always unevenly enforced (read Michelle Alexander) are racist in themselves, you get to pick and choose which one to enforce and guess which one you want to enforce. Then all sorts of racist violence can be justified because you shouldn’t have done x stupid rule and therefore the worse crimes are justified.”
“Someone not following a leash law doesn’t give another person the right to behave how this woman did with her racist words and threats of violence,” wrote another woman.
Regardless of whether the man should have had his dog on leash or not, Fernandez said he, like many others, was dismayed by the woman’s attitude.
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“If we left it at, ‘Are you from here?’ someone could be confused that that’s all it was,” he said. “But when she goes on to say, ‘Make sure you have your papers,’ I think we all know what that means.”
“I will say that people like this are not representative as a whole of who we are as a community,” Fernandez continued. “However, it’s undeniable that there’s a part of the community. This is our central challenge as a predominately white community and relatively wealthy community with an area median income of over $100,000, and knowing that it’s a result of historic and sustained oppression. We need to really address these issues head-on.”
“Comments like this are perfect example that we are not in a race-neutral place right now, and it’s up to us to take the action that we can to make sure folks of color are comfortable living in and even passing through our town.”
Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at [email protected] or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).
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