An older White woman is facing severe backlash after she spat on a Black male teenager who was protesting peacefully with others in suburban Milwaukee on Saturday, June 6, 2020.
Stephanie Rapkin, 64, eventually was arrested despite the fact that she called police after her aggressive and menacing actions toward the crowd of young people. ABC affiliate WISN reports that Rapkin used her car as a barrier to block a peaceful multicultural march in Shorewood, Wisconsin. She then darted out of her vehicle and stood in front of a crowd of mostly teens and tweens.
According to WISN, Rapkin tried to “obstruct the marches” that were honoring George Floyd, who died on Memorial Day, May 25, after a fateful encounter with Minneapolis police.
As the video shows, the woman began arguing with an unidentified woman until the time where the rest of the crowd began to get agitated with her unsolicited and unprovoked diatribe toward them. They told her to leave as a Black teen took up for the young woman. And that’s when she jerked her head forward and spit in the young Black teen’s face.
She might have gotten away with it but, with technology revolutionizing the manner and speed with which we communicate these days, protesters took a photo of her personalized license plate.
Rapkin, a licensed real estate, probate and tax attorney, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and battery for spitting on the teen and for disrupting the peaceful expression of someone else’s First Amendment rights.
She was not immediately taken to the Milwaukee County Jail because of precautions regarding the coronavirus.
However, Rapkin was arrested for a second time on Sunday after another video showed her pushing a different demonstrator, WISN reports. But she was combative during her apprehension and allegedly kneed a police officer in the groin.
Subsequently, Rapkin has been slapped with additional charges, including battery to a law enforcement officer and resisting/obstructing an officer. This time, after Rapkin’s second arrest, she was taken to the Milwaukee County Jail.
The teen, Eric Lucas, who spoke publicly to reporters about the incident on Monday, June 8, said the disgusting assault on him exacerbated his trauma because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“At this time, I continue to be mentally and physically shaken to be assaulted by an adult in my own community during the pandemic was traumatic,” Lucas said. “Again and again, I am viewed not as a child, but as a color — a color that destroys and does not uplift and love. I am disappointed feeling unloved by individuals I have done no harm to. Injustice anywhere is a detriment to justice everywhere.”
Rapkin has since been subjected to scathing public rebuke by the town’s executive leadership and the State Bar Association of Wisconsin, with the latter characterizing her behavior as “disgusting.”
Furthermore, Congressman David Bowen, D-Wisconsin, scolded Rapkin on Twitter, writing, “Stephanie, you are about to lose your law license.”
Watch a video of the incident and reaction below.
