Video of white woman calling cops on black man in Central Park draws outrage
As well it should.
A video of a white woman calling the cops on a black man because he asked her to leash her dog in Central Park Monday is drawing outrage on social media.
The footage, posted on Twitter by the man’s sister, begins with the masked dog walker marching toward the man and demanding that he stop filming.
“Please don’t come close to me,” the man, who doesn’t appear on camera, is heard responding several times.
She continues to ask him to stop filming — and then threatens to call 911.
When the man invites her to “please call the cops,” she says: “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life.”
“Please tell them whatever you like,” he responds.
The dog walker then pulls down her mask as she gets on the phone and says: “I’m in the Ramble and an African American man with a bicycle helmet, he is recording me and threatening my dog.”
She pauses before repeating that “there is an African American man. He is recording me and threatening my dog.”
After an other pause, the woman appears suddenly shaken up as she cries: “I’m sorry, I can’t hear!”
“I’m being threatened by a man in the Ramble, please send the cops immediately.”
Throughout the clip, the woman is seen grabbing her struggling dog by a neck harness and holding a leash, which she eventually attaches to the harness.
At that point, the man says “thank you” and stops filming.
I bet the lady considers herself a liberal, too. In my experience, white liberals often tend to feel more threatened around black folks than white conservatives do. Why might that be?
Thanks for the link, I'd heard about the video but hadn't seen it yet. I also read that she has been both identified and fired from her job. The racism she demonstrated is amazingly blatant. Like you, I'd bet that she identifies as liberal. What are the odds that a youngish white woman in NYC is Republican?
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, this video brought to mind a conversation I had with my former Deputy at work. She's an African-American in her 60s and liberal--pretty much the opposite of me politically. But what I really appreciated is that we could talk about our different values and beliefs in a straightforward, polite, and meaningful way (and not just because I was the boss). Anyway, one day I told her how offensive I thought this whole "check your privilege" crap was. I told her I grew up poor and didn't experience any benefits from my whiteness. I asked her to give me some examples of white privilege.
She responded: When your kids were teenagers did you ever sit them down before they went out for the evening and talk to them about how to act and respond should they be stopped by the police? I did that as a mother because my black children were much more likely to be harassed by the cops and potentially shot than white kids are. That's the kind of privilege you have that you are not even aware of.
Well, she had a point I suppose, although as I teen I got pulled over all the time for no other reason than having long hair and driving around in a '56 Pontiac. I fit the pothead demographic. But when I saw this video of the woman in the park I could sense the entitlement she felt she deserved for being white. And reporting a false assault from a black man, especially in light of the recent events in Georgia, demonstrates an expectation that she would be believed and that the threat of potential police violence would intimidate the black man into submission. Disgusting.