Ohio woman calls police on 9-year-old girl for writing Black Lives Matter outside her own house

When 9-year-old Mira Acklin wrote 'Black Lives Matter" in chalk on her street, she was trying to support the anti-racism movement.

Yet an adult woman who lives nearby apparently took it upon herself to call the police, who arrived to assess the situation.

Mira Acklin, who is nine years old, told local Ohio Television station WBNS-TV that:

I think that black and white people they should be treated the same, and I wanted to show my support and how much I really care about black people.

Her mother Jenna Acklin said deputies from the Fairfield County Sheriff's Office arrived on the street later that day after a woman named Billie called to complain about vandalism.

The neighbour, Billie, (whose middle name is said to be Karen but this is unconfirmed) was apparently screaming: “This neighbourhood is going to hell!' before reporting the child to police.

When the police arrived, Acklin says the deputies told her family that they'd done nothing wrong and then spoke to the neighbour who had called them.

In a post on Facebook, Acklin says the police actually encouraged them to “write it larger!”

She said:

He got out of the car and talked to her and said she had called and said there was vandalizing in the street and screaming,

In a Facebook post describing the surreal situation, Jenna Acklin said her daughter was "upset and scared," but she explained that the neighbour's actions are "an example of why we must speak up."

I said 'you know honey as uncomfortable as you feel, you also have to know your friends and other people of colour feel this fear every day, multiplied times one-million'.

As terrible as this series of events has been, we feel so blessed to be spreading the message BLACK LIVES MATTER!

Acklin wrote.

Fancy coming and writing your message on our streets Mira?