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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGrandfather accused of abducting his grandson because of their different skin tones
A Torrance, CA, grandfather says a woman accused him of abducting his own grandson because they have different skin tones. Torrance police say officers responded to the 700 block of Border Avenue Sunday afternoon regarding a suspicious circumstances call - a possible abduction involving an older Hispanic man walking with a small child.
Abel Mata says he was shocked when he learned he was the center of attention. Mata spends as much time as possible with his 2-year-old grandson Milo Walker. He says they were together when police showed up outside his Torrance home and asked him about a young child.
Mata says he was told someone had reported a child being abducted. "And it was a Latino man with a little white baby," Mata says, pointing to himself while holding his grandson. Police say a woman there had a large knife in a sheath, though it's not clear why she had it. "It was an older white lady, blond hair, curly hair," Mata says. "She was telling me that I was an abductor. She was yelling that I was trying to abduct the child."
Police say officers talked with Mata and right away realized it was not an abduction. "I was judged according to the color of my skin and the color of the skin of my grandson," Mata says. "We've lived in Southern California our whole lives and I've seen my dad experience racism because of the color of his skin and the way he looks, but never to this extent," said Athena, Mata's daughter. "It's painful. Very painful," the grandfather says. He says he hopes by sharing his story, it will make people think twice before they judge others.
Torrance police say it's not clear if the person who called police was the woman with the knife. As for the knife, Mata says officers told him because she did not threaten him with it, nothing could be done.
https://abc7.com/6400511/
Solly Mack
(90,766 posts)She'd probably would have be accused of kidnapping these days.
Racist people suck.
hunter
(38,311 posts)Our youngest child was the whitest kid in school.
2naSalit
(86,608 posts)When I was young.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)Yeah, it's bad that this guy had to explain himself, but on the galactic scale of horrible wrongs in the universe, this seems like kind of small potatoes.
I had my own suspicious circumstance a few years ago. On my morning bicycle commute, I heard a dog yelping from inside a house. No big thing, dogs yelp all the time. When I went home in the evening, more yelping from the same house. Now I'm a little concerned. The next day, dog is still (or maybe again) yelping, and my antennae are definitely up. Do I call Animal Control or not? If the dog's been abandoned in that house and is starving to death, I'd hate to think that I'd heard it crying for help and did nothing. Give it one more day. Sure enough, the next day more yelping, so I call Animal Control. They do a welfare check on the address, the owner(s) is/are home, and give a satisfactory account of whatever was going on.
Did I feel bad, siccing the authorities on the owners? A little. But how would I have felt if it turned out the owners had abandoned the dog, or if the owner had suffered a totally disabling or deadly health event, and hadn't been discovered for days or weeks? Was Mr. Mata inconvenienced? Yes. But what if it really was an abduction and nobody had done anything? It's not an easy call either way.
marybourg
(12,631 posts)a circumstance that warrants a welfare check; you did the absolutely right thing. Two people of different ages with differing skin tones is absolutely NOT such a circumstance! All families of color have people with different skin tones. Do you think the woman would have called had the skin tones been reversed, with the child darker than the man? I think we can both agree she would not have. No, this is direct result of: theyre sending rapists and thieves and . . . coming from a president.
rusty fender
(3,428 posts)the knife actually see a man snatching a child off the street? No. She saw a man holding a childs hand, and, because she is a racist shithead, she called the police. You had cause to call animal control based on your 2 days of observation. That woman? No cause.
cayugafalls
(5,640 posts)In China on the way back to the USA, if we had not had ALL our paperwork (marriage cert, birth certs for all, passports, drivers license, citizenship papers) we would have had a battle on our hands. They thought we were illegally taking him out of the country, that no way could he be the son of this Gweilo.
I've had people in the US ask me whether he was my "son" using air quotes, like that was less offensive or something. While I understand caution, it still hurts and offends a little, but in the grand scheme of things it can be a teaching moment and work for the betterment of both parties involved.
Love does not see color, only people.