Police Investigating Hate Crime After Girl Receives Doll ‘Dressed Like A Slave’ At Mardi Gras Parade
Mississippi authorities are investigating a Mardi Gras incident as a hate crime after a young girl received a doll 'dressed like a slave.'
This isn't the first time a throw like this has been caught at a Mardi Gras parade, and I've seen numerous debates on what exactly defines "dressed like a slave"—but the fact that beads were used to form a noose around the neck of this doll is flat out disgusting.
According to a report from NOLA.com, Nicole Fairconeture and her family were attending the Krewe of Nereids parade that rolls between Bay St. Louis and Waveland on U.S. 90. Fairconeture says her family stands in front of B&J Pit Stop, a family member's oil change and detailing business.
On Sunday during the parade, a man reportedly called Fairconeture's daughter up to the float to hand her a throw.
She grabbed the item, put it to her chest, and was coming back (from U.S. 90 to the business) and he called her back. When she turned around, he said, ‘That’s you.’
Fairconeture says the doll was "dressed like a slave" and she immediately flagged down police and handed the doll over. Naturally, her daughter was upset and her uncle has since filed a police report.
She’s just very disturbed by it, that he pointed her out in the crowd to give her what to her was an insult. Her peers had to see it, my family had to deal with that. ... It’s really disturbing.
Waveland Mayor Mike Smith agreed with Fairconeture, calling the incident "infuriating."
When I seen that it had happened, it infuriated me. The Waveland Police Department will certainly do whatever it can to aid Bay St. Louis (police) in trying to get to bottom of it.
A Facebook post describing the incident was posted by Sea Coast Echo newspaper reporter, Stacey Cato and the commenters were overwhelmingly shocked at the audacity that someone would have to do such a thing.
Of course, there were some commenters that felt the need to perform complex mental acrobatics in an effort to downplay in the incident, but if this truly happened there are parts to the story that are simply not justified by argument.
Police Chief Mike Prendergast spoke to the mother on Sunday assuring her that the investigation would be handled by Bay police. According to NOLA.com, the float was decorated in a Saints theme but is not an official Krewe of Nereids float.
There were a total of three Saints-themed floats and the captain of one float says they are working with officials to clear their name. According to the captain,
her float did not throw the doll and would never have those kinds of throws on their float. She said several of the riders in her Krewe are African Americans.
This is a developing story and we will update this post with any new information when we receive it.
For the full story, head over to NOLA.com