Reggie Fields — at 12 years old — is a business owner.
He operates Mr. Reggie’s Lawn Cutting Service in his Cleveland, Ohio, neighbourhood of Maple Heights.
What was meant to be a regular day of business for Fields took an unexpected turn late last month when officers from the Maple Heights Police Department showed up.
READ MORE: South Carolina woman slaps black teen, asks him to leave swimming pool
Fields and his team — his siblings and cousins — were cutting grass for Lucille Holt, who recorded the incident in a Facebook live.
It turned out that Holt’s neighbour called the police to complain about the children cutting grass. The children had accidentally mowed across some of the property line.
WATCH: Cleveland boy’s lawn mowing business booms after woman calls police
“All young people ain’t out here doing wrong,” Holt says in the video, which is titled, “This is RIDICULOUS.”
“They called the police to tell the police that the kids was cutting their grass. Who does that?”
In an interview with The New York Times, Holt later explained she was outraged because it was clearly a racially charged incident.
“If they would have been four white children, the police would not have been called,” she said. “A lot of it is racially motivated.”
WATCH: Woman’s racist tirade at Lethbridge Denny’s goes viral
The police officers checked out the scene, only speaking to the adults involved, and quickly left.
In an interview with CNN affiliate WEWS, Fields said he didn’t mean to cut the neighbour’s grass.
“They said I was cutting their grass. I didn’t know it,” he said. “I was like, ‘That’s a shame. I didn’t know.'”
Field’s mom, Brandy, told the news channel that Fields started his business because he was bored and wanted money to buy candy.
The boy, who is heading into Grade 7 in the fall, will have a lot more candy money now.
READ MORE: U.S. woman berates Latino man in random attack
People who caught a hold of his story have been reaching out to him and asking him to cut their grass.
A GoFundMe page was also started for the business, which reached nearly $46,000 in four days.
And the police department also reached out to Fields, posing for photos with him and praising his work — they also forwarded the many messages of support they received on his behalf.
A Facebook page for Fields’ business, Mr. Reggie’s lawn cutting service, shared a photo online.
This is the latest in a series of incidents in the United States, where police have been called on people of colour for trivial reasons.
WATCH: Woman accused of threatening to call police on girl for selling water bottles
Days before Fields’ story went viral, one out of South Carolina told the story of a white woman who insulted and hit a black teenager by a pool.
Another one involved a woman calling 911 on a young black girl who was selling water bottles.
There was also the highly reported case of two black men at a Starbucks in Pennsylvania, who were deemed suspicious for no apparent reason.
Comments