New Hampshire woman who threatened Black child violated civil rights law, court rules - fox23maine.com

DOVER, N.H. (AP) — A New Hampshire woman violated the state’s civil rights law by calling a Black child by a racial slur and threatening to kneel on his neck, a court ruled Wednesday.

Kristina Graper, 51, of Dover, was accused of threatening the 9-year-old in May after he accidentally broke her son’s toy at a local park.

Graper’s son pushed the boy, and that push resulted in the boy “breaking a foam missile or foam bullet” that belonged to Graper’s son. Her son ran home to tell her what happened.

Graper then went back to the park and found the other child, threatening him that she would “kneel on his neck,” according to the complaint. A witness told Graper that her behavior was unnecessary, and then Graper started yelling at that person. She called the child a racial slur before returning home, the complaint said.

The child’s mother later called police. When she met with them on June 1, Graper denied saying she would kneel on the boy’s neck, but instead said words to the effect of, “you wonder why you guys get (expletive) kneeled on,” according to the complaint.

She was prosecuted by the attorney general’s Civil Rights Unit in Strafford County Superior Court, which concluded that her conduct was motivated by the victim’s race and was intended to terrorize or coerce him.

Graper, whose race was not mentioned in the complaint, has been prohibited from contacting the boy or his family or coming within 250 feet of them. She also was given a $2,500 civil penalty, with all but $500 suspended if she complies.

Graper did not file a response to attorney general’s complaint. A phone number listed for her attorney was disconnected.

The complaint said the encounter distressed the child, who understood the comments to be a reference to the murder of George Floyd last year. He began to cry when he heard her words and has been afraid to return to the park, and will only do so “when other children are there to help keep him safe,” the complaint said.

Millions of people watched the footage of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, pleading for air as a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck until he stopped breathing. Former Officer Derek Chauvin was convicted in April of murder and manslaughter in Floyd’s death.

source: https://fox23maine.com/news/local/new-hampshire-woman-who-threatened-black-child-violated-civil-rights-law-court-rules

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