North Carolina Woman Charged, Has Home Raided By Cops For Listening To Malcolm X Speeches

Mikisa Thompson (left) with her daughter Takiyah. Source: Facebook

The incident happened three days before Malcolm X's birthday.

On Thursday night, North Carolina police officers raided the home of a black woman and accused her of violating a noise ordinance that stems from her allegedly playing Malcolm X speeches too loudly.

In a report from Indy Week, Mikisa Thompson was charged with violating Garner's noise ordinance, with her neighbor — a white man named Don Barnette — accusing her of playing Malcolm X speeches too loudly. Garner is a suburb of Raleigh.

The charge came about after police searched Thompson's home and seized a number of electronic items including a MacBook, computer speakers, and a computer monitor.

"The raid was officially insane and based on an unconstitutional statute," T. Greg Doucette, Thompson's attorney, said. "Doing a midnight raid with nine officers — over a noise ordinance, of all things — is a disproportionate show of force that shows there's something else at play. That's the type of overkill that's intentionally designed to terrorize and punish people, not to actually do what's necessary for enforcing the case."

Thompson has allegedly violated the town's noise ordinance before, with Barnette calling 911 back in April to complain that Thompson was playing "loud Islamic-Muslim preaching" in her backyard while she cleaned her patio.

The Indy Week noted that the police didn't conduct a decibel reading on how loud the sound was but they also don't have to under the ordinance.

The report goes on to write how the ordinance explains a forbidden sound, which is "playing of any radio, phonograph, television set, record player, sound reproduction device or any musical instrument in such a manner or with such volume during the hours between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., as to annoy or disturb the quiet, comfort, or repose of persons in any dwelling house, apartment or other type of residence."

Barnette has accused Thompson of waking him up as early as 7:15 a.m., but she denied this, saying that she never plays the speeches that early nor during the hours mentioned in the ordinance.

"I don't feel comfortable here," Thompson said, adding, "because it's not just the neighbors. It's the police that uphold the white supremacist ideology. That's painful."

Thompson is also the mother of Takiyah, the girl who toppled a Confederate monument alongside other activists in Durham in 2017.

Source: Indy Week