Another white person in Pacific Heights has been captured on video being an asshole to a person of color, this time questioning a man who was delivering Narcan to a nearby halfway house.
We can refer to the questioner, who identifies himself only as John, as the latest 'Chad' or 'Kevin' to join the panoply of Bay Area white people who remain eager to call the cops on people of color just for existing in their neighborhood.
This incident happened Wednesday on the 2200 block of Clay Street.
In the video, the man mentions packages being stolen, and demands identification from the bike messenger, who works for the Lost Soul Courier Collective. The man taking the video, presumed to be the collective's founder Antonio Chavez, pushes back and asks why he needs to show identification or explain who he works for, asking the guy to show his identification. Asked why he shouldn't have to show his ID, our Kevin replies, "You're the one in the neighborhood here."
And, of course, he has a cell phone holster.
The original video is here, but it was not made embeddable.
Chavez says that on this day, he was making a delivery of the overdose-reversing drug Narcan to a halfway house on Clay Street, on behalf of the Drug Overdose Prevention & Education or D.O.P.E. Project. His courier service offers the service of Narcan delivery citywide at no charge, but donations are welcomed.
The man ultimately says he's going to call the police, and Chavez says, "Have you heard of the 'CAREN Act'? Who's breaking the law now."
As Chavez writes, "I’m guessing that in his mind I had no right to be walking down his street, and I must be looking for something to steal. I have a strong feeling that he wouldn’t have harassed me of I was of a lighter complexion, but this is an everyday thing when you’re a man of color living in America."
Last June, we can all remember this nice unmasked white lady who confronted a man who was in fact her neighbor, questioning why he chalking Black Lives Matter on some property she assumed didn't belong to him. In that case, the victim was a Filipino man, and the woman and her partner, Lisa Alexander and Robert Larkins, both reportedly lost their jobs after the video — and their racial profiling — went viral. Perhaps our Pac Heights Kevin missed that day in class?
Following that incident and others, the SF Board of Supervisors passed the Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies (CAREN) Act, which makes it easier for anyone who's had the cops called on them in incidents like this to sue their harassers in civil court.
"We want to make sure people don’t continue to weaponize emergency calls to law enforcement," said Supervisor Shamann Walton at the time. "Communities of color have the right to go about daily activities without being threatened by someone calling 911 on them due to someone’s racism."
Thanks to tipster Eric C. Send your tips to [email protected].
