Stephanie Rapkin, Shorewood, Wisconsin lawyer arrested after video captures her in two separate confrontations with BLM protesters.
A suburban Milwaukee woman was arrested twice over the weekend after she was initially caught on camera on Saturday spitting in the face of a 17-year-old black boy during a Black Lives Matter protest.
Stephanie Rapkin, 64, was captured on video parking her car in the middle of the street and blocking a protest by hundreds of locals in Shorewood, Wisconsin, Saturday afternoon.
According to authorities, a Black Lives Matter march was heading south on North Oakland Avenue when Rapkin, a local attorney — left her car in the middle of the intersection of East Jarvis Street and North Oakland Avenue so as to obstruct the procession.
Rapkin was then seen walking on the sidewalk and confronting a large group of protesters, most of whom appeared to be in their teens and 20s.
Several vehicles were seen backed up on the road, unable to continue driving because Rapkin’s car was blocking them.
Spitting Shorewood attorney charged with hate crime
Twitter meet Wisconsin attorney, Stephanie Rapkin. She parked her car to block a protest through a white suburban area, then SPIT on a MINOR. Make her famous. pic.twitter.com/p8f4DQguNN
— BLACKLIVESMATTER (@t_ye17) June 8, 2020
Protesters can be heard on the street demanding that she move her car.
Meanwhile, Rapkin ignores demonstrator demands and is seen walking on the sidewalk. It remained unclear why Rapkin had blocked protesters in the first place.
One protester takes out her cell phone and follows Rapkin.
‘She won’t move her car!’ the protester says as she walks behind Rapkin.
The protester then repeats: ‘She won’t move her car, so we can’t go.’
At one point, Rapkin turns toward the protester and yells back: ‘She won’t keep me safe. You won’t keep me safe. Move away from me. Move away from me.’
Video then shows protesters confront Rapkin.
‘I’m black, I’m proud,’
‘Get away from me,’ the lawyer yells at a woman pleading with her to return to her vehicle and allow the procession march to continue.
Moments later, a large group of protesters, most of whom are young African Americans chanting ‘I’m black, I’m proud,’ move towards her.
One of the protesters, Eric Patrick Lucas III, a teen, is seen yelling in her direction, though it is unclear what he said.
Rapkin then spits on the boy. Other protesters intervene and restrain him while crowding around her, urging her to return to her vehicle.
Rapkin was taken into custody later that evening at 10:12pm local time.
Milwaukee County officials said that Rapkin was not booked into the county jail on Saturday night due to coronavirus limitations.
‘Again and again, I am viewed not as a child but as a color.’
‘I continue to be mentally and physically shaken,’ Lucas, a junior at Shorewood High School, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday.
‘To be assaulted by an adult in my own community during a pandemic was traumatic.’
Lucas added: ‘Again and again, I am viewed not as a child but as a color.’
But it only continued.
Come Sunday, Rapkin was arrested once again after she was accused of shoving a 21-year-old college student who said he’d come to ‘protest’ over Saturday’s incident in front of her home.
Video posted to social media by Shorewood resident Debra Brehmer shows Rapkin confronting Brehmer’s son, Joe Friedman, a senior at Ithaca College in New York.
Friedman said that he went to Rapkin’s block after hearing about her initial arrest for spitting on the teen.
He then wrote in chalk on the sidewalk outside of her home: ‘Be better than this’.
Friedman also wrote: ‘I spit on a child. How dare you!’
#StephanieRapkin keeps on digging!
Folks came out to her home today to write shaming messages outside on the public sidewalk & she assaulted two more people. Word is Shorewood PD is trying to get her to come out and she’s refusing. pic.twitter.com/YbdH6jKRdE
— Merc with a Mouth (@Mercuryal) June 7, 2020
‘…slapped both of her hands on the victim’s chest and physically pushed him.’
According to Friedman, an hour after he arrived, Rapkin came out of her home to confront him and about 10 other people who’d joined him.
In captured video, Friedman, who is holding a camera, and Rapkin are seen arguing.
She told Friedman that she was defending herself and claimed spitting in response to allegedly being attacked by Lucas.
Rapkin then demonstrated the alleged attack by approaching Friedman.
From the video, it appears she shoved him in the chest.
‘You just put your hands on me,’ Friedman said in the video. ‘That is assault right there.
‘Wow, I just got that on video ma’am.’
A woman at the scene who witnessed the incident then called the police.
‘The victim in today’s incident reported he was peacefully protesting on the sidewalk in front of suspect’s home, when the suspect came out and engaged in a verbal altercation with the protesters,’ Shorewood police said in a statement. ‘The victim reported the suspect then slapped both of her hands on the victim’s chest and physically pushed him.’
Stephanie Rapkin was then arrested and forcibly removed from her home: pic.twitter.com/hb3PufU1xc
— I’m tired, yall. 🥺🌹 (@PoetryNPapyrus) June 8, 2020
Stephanie Rapkin Shorewood lawyer to be disbarred?
According to police, Rapkin resisted arrest and kneed a police officer in the groin when they tried to take her into custody for battery and disorderly conduct, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Police seek to charge Rapkin with battery, disorderly conduct, battery to a law enforcement officer, and resisting or obstructing an officer.
Michael Maistelman, an election law attorney, has filed a complaint with the Office of Lawyer Regulation asking it to investigate Rapkin.
The office could make a recommendation to the state Supreme Court to disbar her.
Rapkin was booked into the Milwaukee County Jail on Sunday and kept overnight.
Bail was set at $950.
