A 9-year-old Black girl who was racially profiled while spraying spotted lanternflies in her neighborhood attended a town hall meeting at Caldwell University about racial discrimination.

A white neighbor called the police on Bobbie Wilson in November. He stated that he was nervous about what she was spraying. When the police arrived, they say that she posed no threat.

Monique Joseph, Bobbi’s mother, says that her daughter may not be alive today if she had been a young Black boy.

"If this was a Black boy in another town with another officer, I would be a grieving mom today, not a mom who can stand here and say, ‘I'm happy I have my daughter,’” Joseph says.

The most recent data from the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office finds that 2021 saw the most bias incidents in the state since numbers were collected beginning in 1994.