Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams and Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte (D-Ditmas Park, Flatbush) held an emotional and racially-charged community rally yesterday on the corner of where the “Cornerstone Caroline” incident took place.
The incident, which was captured on video and has since gone viral, occurred last Friday, Oct.12, when Teresa Klein, a white resident of Flatbush community, traumatized a young 9-year old child, Jeremiah, by falsely accusing him of groping her from behind while at the Sahara Deli Market, at 2125 Albemarle Road off the corner of Flatbush Avenue.
Klein called the cops on the child claiming that she had been sexually harassed but later recanted, apologizing for mistaking the boy’s bookbag for his hands. Local activist Jason Littlejohn captured it all on video and coined the women “Cornerstore Caroline.”
For those that know American and African American history, the incident brought back the racist and violent memories of Emmitt Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy from Chicago, who while visiting family in Mississippi, was brutally lynched and killed after being accused of offending a white woman in her family’s grocery store.
The 1955 incident became one of the catalysts for the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, ending what is known as this country’s Jim Crow laws and the creation of a number of federal equal rights laws pertaining to blacks.
Adams urged the black community to use their voices to fight these instances of racism but was very vague on any specific actions being taken on by his office against Klein.
“It’s about a dialogue, it’s about a conversation, because it’s easy to get angry but not have any results after. That’s why we are here today. We want to hear from you, it’s about how do we continue to move our communities forward,” said Adams.
Adams went on to note that Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez is already investigating possible criminal charges against Klein, who supposedly impersonated a cop at the time of the incident.
However, not all local residents believe the lawmakers are actually going to produce results. Brooklyn native Cortez Sutton, 43, son to a 3 year-old-boy, believes the event was just for optics and doubts anything will come of the rally.
“A lot of times when they come out here and put on these spectacles, if nothing happens afterwards, then that’s all that it is, a show. They put on a spectacle to ease the people but nothing happens, look how they set it up. It’s clear that this woman should have been arrested a long time ago. Reactions have to happen, not the reactions of the people because the people don’t have any power but from elected officials,” said Sutton.
Sutton also was quick to note, that there were very few white people, or “gentrifiers” as they have been come to be known, in the crowd rallying with the community. The clash between the newcomers and the natives of the area was an underlying factor at the rally, that many believe is causing the racial and class divide.
“The gentrifiers were speckled through the crowd. I saw some but it’s very telling because they move into these neighborhoods and instead of coming out and lending their voices, they stay silent. It’s ironic too because this is a microcosm of how white people deal with racism– white people want black people to fix racism, which is not how it works” added Sutton.
Bichotte is hoping to change the history of a lack of results in these situations by introducing legislation a the state level that would penalize those who misuse emergency services.
“This is really real and I can’t not imagine how traumatized this young boy must be. He was just coming from school, with his mom and sister and having to live with racism everyday. I am going to make sure that we bring peace, and protection to our young innocent children,” said Bichotte behind tears.
