The View’s Sunny Hostin Warned Cops Not to ‘Harass’ Her Son For Running in an ‘All-White Neighborhood’
The View co-host Sunny Hostin said she has proactively taken her son to the local police department to warn cops not to “harass him” if they ever saw him running through his “all-white neighborhood.”
Hostin, during Tuesday’s episode of the ABC program, said she considered it a necessary measure — given her son’s skin color and what she believes to be the possibility officers or neighbors might believe he was up to no good.
“As a mother of Black children, I know Black boys are not given the presumption of innocence and the presumption of youth,” Hostin said.
She added a moment later:
“I’ve had to be in the position where I’ve had to go to my local police department, because I know my son is going to be training for the Junior Olympics — running around the neighborhood in an all-white neighborhood — and I have brought him to the police and said ‘He belongs to me, this is my son. Do not harass him, do not stop him.'”
Hostin shared the personal story during a discussion about the new Netflix documentary The Perfect Neighbor. The documentary covers the 2023 killing of Ajike “AJ” Owens, a 35-year-old black mom to four kids. Owens was shot by her white neighbor, Susan Lorincz, in Ocala, FL, after Owens went over to confront Lorincz about harassing her kids, including throwing roller skates and an umbrella at them and using racial slurs. Lorincz shot Owens through her front door; she was found guilty of manslaughter in 2024 and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Hostin said that Owens was “doing what so many black mothers do, and she was killed for protecting her child.”
Co-Host Sara Haines, a moment earlier, urged viewers to watch the documentary and called Lorincz a “vile awful, racist human being.” She said the film is also touching, though, when viewers see the “beautiful” connection between local cops and the community, which she said is “not what you think it’s going to be.”
Joy Behar added it was “scary” to know some states like Florida have “Stand Your Ground” gun laws.
You can watch Hostin and her colleagues above, via ABC.
