Byron Ragland, a visitation supervisor and court-appointed special advocate in Seattle, was on the job at the frozen yogurt franchise Menchie's when police approached him and asked him to leave. Ragland, who is Black, was at the restaurant to supervise a meeting between a white mother and son.
“They asked me to leave,” the 31-year-old told the Seattle Times. “They asked for my ID. They told me the manager had been watching me and wanted me to move along.”
The owner of the shop, Ramon Cruz, reportedly called the police because Ragland hadn't ordered anything and was supposedly making two white female employees uncomfortable.
“They’re kind of scared because he looks suspicious,” Cruz told the 911 dispatcher, as he noted Ragland is African American. “All he does is look at his phone, look at them, look at his phone, look at them.”
According to the Kirkland police report, the officers were told Ragland was there to supervise a mother visiting with her son. Although the mother and son vouched for him, he was still required to leave and departed the store with the pair.
The police department's unwanted subject report on the incident states the store's employees “were both thankful that Ragland was gone” after authorities ushered him out.
Byron Ragland is both a court-appointed special advocate and a visitation supervisor. One day he was supervising a parental visit at a frozen yogurt shop, when the shop owner called the police on him because employees felt "scared." https://t.co/5FCep5864G
— The Seattle Times (@seattletimes) November 17, 2018
“How would you feel hearing that you made people so scared and uncomfortable that they called the police?” asked Byron Ragland.
Ragland was supervising a parental visit at a frozen yogurt shop when the owner called the police on him. https://t.co/mMOR1Xutzu
— The Seattle Times (@seattletimes) November 17, 2018
Despite the side-eye-worthy optics, Cruz claims his call had nothing to do with race.
“This is not racial profiling, though,” argued Cruz. “I mean I’m Asian, I experience the same thing. It was a misunderstanding, which sometimes do happen.”
Ragland chalked up the encounter as just another day in a Black man's life, unfortunately.
“How would you feel hearing that you made people so scared and uncomfortable that they called the police?” he asked. “For me, that’s just Wednesday. I try not to let it consume me. But it’s hard not to conclude that I walk around in a certain skin, and that’s all that matters.”
Kirkland police announced on Saturday that the department would be investigating the matter to determine if proper protocol was followed, KIRO reports.
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