The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday is meant to bring Americans together as they honor the late civil rights leader. In Miami, Florida, however, a white male decided to mark the occasion with a racist tirade instead.
On Monday, a disturbing video caught Mark Allen Bartlett waving a firearm at a group of Black children demonstrating at an anti-gun violence rally.
According to the New York Post, the frightening confrontation occurred in the Brickell neighborhood of Miami at a yearly protest organized by Dream Defenders, a civil rights group, called "Bikes Up, Guns Down." The youth activists gathered in the neighborhood with their bikes to protest gun violence and creeping gentrification.
The incident involving the gunman began when a white woman identified as Dana Scalione accused the teens of blocking the road with their bikes. The Miami New Times reports her verbal altercation with the teens heated up when the woman accused a boy of running over her foot. She repeatedly screamed, "You just touched me, you bunch of thugs!"
As Scalione leaves the scene, Bartlett then emerged from his vehicle and began harassing the children, calling them "dumb-a*s f****g "n*****s."
BREAKING: Miami teens participating in annual #BikesUpGunsDown event assaulted and threatened with a gun in the Brickell Avenue area of Miami today. Captured by one of our members. pic.twitter.com/Hxtscb52PK
— Dream Defenders (@Dreamdefenders) January 22, 2019
Still receiving details. The earlier video was the *second* time she got out of the car to harass the teenagers. pic.twitter.com/lif03bR3SY
— Dream Defenders (@Dreamdefenders) January 22, 2019
The 51-year-old man was detained and booked on charges of possessing a concealed weapon, writes the New York Post. He was kept overnight on a bond of $5,000.
The charged is a concealed firearm. Not the threats/brandishing. This is a slap on the wrist. pic.twitter.com/Lo29ZxjSIy
— Dream Defenders (@Dreamdefenders) January 22, 2019
The Miami Herald reports Bartlett could face more serious charges, such as hate crime charges, which come with longer sentences.
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