Attorneys representing film maker and actress Donisha Prendergast and her friends, who claim their rights were violated during an April 30 incident, are requesting a meeting with the Rialto Police Department in California to discuss the matter.

Prendergast, daughter of former Melody Maker Sharon Marley and former FIFA referee Peter Prendergast, is granddaughter to Bob and Rita Marley. She was recently cast in the pilot for a web series Savannah, which was released on social media. In 2011 she filmed RasTa: A Soul’s Journey, which saw her travelling to eight countries to explore the root of Rasta.

She, along with friends Nigerian-Canadian visual artist Komi-Oluwa Olafimihan and filmmaker Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, claim they were all racially profiled and unlawfully detained by officers with the Rialto Police Department, while checking out of an Airbnb rental. A fourth person, an unnamed Caucasian woman was also in Prendergast’s party. It is alleged a female neighbour called the police after seeing persons removing items from the house.

Attorneys Jasmine Rand and Benjamin Crump have been retained to defend the violation of their rights against the Rialto Police Department and the neighbour who placed the call.

“Attorneys Rand and Crump will request a meeting with the Rialto Police Department Interim Chief and the Mayor to discuss the officers’ actions to rectify the injustice suffered by their clients and to ensure the safety of Rialto citizens and guests in the future. They will also request a criminal investigation into the woman whom placed the 911 call making the false allegations,” a statement from the attorneys read in part.

According to Rand, in addition to holding police departments accountable, citizens who place racist 911 calls containing false allegations and material misrepresentations must be held accountable for endangering the lives of others.

“Emmett Till was murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman named Carolyn Bryant, and decades later three lives were endangered for not waving to a white woman. A modern-day Carolyn Bryant, the white female neighbour who placed the 911 call – found three black people suspicious… The homeowner then attended a press conference with Rialto Police Department defending her neighbor and stating that the whole situation could have been avoided if these three black “kids” had smiled and waved at her white neighbour. Donisha, Komi, and Kelly smile all of the time of her own freewill, but I will not live in an America when she is expected to smile on command to protect her constitutional rights. In America today, far too many eyes perceive the world through a lens of racism; to look Black is to look criminal. The Rialto Police Department now has a duty to criminally investigate this woman for filing a false and misleading report, and to investigate its officers conduct in this instance to ensure that in the future officers do not summarily dismiss racial-bias nor engage in its perpetuation thereby violating constitutional rights,” the statement continued.