A plan to have a good Labor Day outing for the Danvers, Massachusetts, Black family on an apple farm has become a nightmare for racial profiling.
Connors Farm called the Danvers Police Department after accusing Rev. Manica Bowman, vice-chairman of the Cambridge School Committee and Jeff Myers, director of commercial real estate, for stealing six apples. The family shared their experiences on Labor Day in a blog post.
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“Our family didn’t get the apple donuts we’ve been looking forward to all day at Connors Farm in Danvers this Labor Day,” the couple wrote. “What we got at Connors was a traumatic experience of being falsely accused of stealing apples. And for charging, they accused us of stealing while we were on our way to their farm shop to buy more stuff, to spend more money on their business.
The couple said they spent more than $ 100 on their visit. They noticed that there were six extra apples that did not fit in their apple picking bag, and the children added the apples to them without their knowledge. They then said that the apples had been moved from the bag to the pram. Myers and Bowman had plans to take the apples to the farm shop to pay for the extra purchases.
Things were not going according to plan. Instead, the farm called police and the couple said they had been approached by security. Luckily, the guards searched their bags for some fruit. According to ABC News, Bowman’s bag was searched. After explaining to police what had happened, the couple said police had accused them of “playing the racing card”.
Bowman and Myers have three requests from the farm: a written apology from the owner, more than $ 100 they spend on the farm to donate to charity, and for farm owners and the Danvers Police Department to implement diversity training.
The farm apologized on Thursday (September 9th), agreeing to participate in diversity training for employees, but did not agree to the charity request.
“We are sorry for the incident that happened last weekend,” the farm wrote on Facebook. “We sent our personal apology to the family,” the farm wrote in a Facebook post. “We do our best to train our employees to deal with all customer issues with kindness and respect at all times. We are taking further steps to ensure that staff are trained in diversity, equity and inclusion. Please keep in mind that everyone is welcome on our farm. “