A Florida man was arrested on Peaks Island after he allegedly shoved a police officer after complaining about a black woman’s conversation about race with friends at a local bar.
The woman, Shay Stewart-Bouley, said she was talking with friends Tuesday night at the island’s American Legion hall about an anti-racism project that she’s working on in Philadelphia. The friends eventually left, and Stewart-Bouley said she lingered to finish her drink.
At that point, the man, Randall Hunt, 54, of Vero Beach, Florida, allegedly told the bartender “that black woman” should be asked to leave because of the “inappropriate” subject of her earlier conversation. Stewart-Bouley said the bartender told the man that she didn’t serve racists and asked the man to leave.
Randall Hunt Photo by Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office
Police said they were called to the legion hall shortly before midnight Tuesday, and by the time they arrived the man had left. He apparently returned a short time later, said Portland interim Police Chief Vern Malloch, and was “very intoxicated.” The police were called back, Malloch said, and Hunt allegedly pushed one of the officers.
The police report said Hunt was involved in an altercation with a woman inside the legion hall, during which he referred to the woman as “that black (epithet).”
Hunt was charged with assault, disorderly conduct and refusing to submit to arrest or detention, Malloch said. The Cumberland County Jail said Friday afternoon that he was no longer at the jail, but they did not have information on his release, including the amount of bail he posted, if any.
Stewart-Bouley posted Friday on Twitter that she was considering getting a restraining order against the man and said she was told by police on the island that they would try to keep Hunt from returning. Malloch, however, said police don’t have the authority to order the man to stay away from Peaks Island, although they did tell him that he shouldn’t return to the legion hall.
Malloch said there was no indication in the police file on Hunt that a protection order had been issued and he didn’t know the disposition of the case in court.
Attempts to contact Hunt in Florida were not successful. Stewart-Bouley answered basic questions about the incident but said she didn’t want to go into detail because she hadn’t written about the incident in her blog, “Black Girl in Maine.” She did post accounts on Twitter and Facebook. She writes about her experiences as a black person in Maine and other topics in her blog.
Stewart-Bouley was the victim in another racial incident in 2015, when someone in a car passing her and her two children in the Old Port shouted a racial epithet.
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