By Vashti Harris | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com and Matthew Stanmyre | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
For Tionni Kennedy, Bridgewater Commons mall is a place she frequently visits to hang out with friends, browse through stores, and gab over meals in the food court.
It’s also where Kennedy, who is Black, said she often encounters racism. The 17-year-old from Piscataway feels the glare of store workers when she walks into shops and notices how they always seem to follow her as she looks at merchandise.
“I feel like I get stares, people following me everywhere, just racially profiling me, and I don’t like that at all,” Kennedy said. “It makes me feel uncomfortable. It’s scary — kind of like, ‘Why are you following me?’”
The popular mall in Somerset County is under scrutiny after a video captured two Bridgewater police officers pin a Black teenager to the floor and handcuff him after a fight on Feb. 12 with a lighter-skinned youth who was allowed to sit on a couch. The Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office is investigating the officers’ conduct, and the NAACP has called for authorities to remove the cops pending the outcome of the probe.
The incident has amplified conversations around how security guards and store employees treat Black people who often complain of being followed closely by workers in malls and other public spaces and stereotyped as looking to steal or cause trouble.
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