White Woman Calls Police on Black Family Trying to BBQ in Oakland

The BBQ continued anyway.

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Whether it's waiting inside Starbucks, checking out of an Airbnb or taking a nap, it's apparently getting harder for black people to do much of anything in America without the police being called.

This time around, a white woman called the cops on a black family who were barbecuing in an Oakland lakeside park, adamant that they were in the wrong area to do so despite it being pretty common for other people to do the same. KRON 4 News shared video footage of the woman explaining to Michelle Snider, who was filming on her cell phone, that using charcoal in that particular spot in the park costs "extra money from our city to do things when children get injured because of improperly disposed [of] coals." Kenzie Smith, Snider's husband, claims he was setting up a grill to BBQ like he has many times before, when the woman came up to them and began to harass them. "She said that we were trespassing, we were not welcome, and then she turned back around and said, 'ya'll going to jail,'" he said. 

While technically they were in the incorrect spot for a charcoal grill, Oakland City council member Lynette Gibson McElhaney says the police should have never been called for a situation like this. "I think it is really incumbent on all of us that when we call police, it is for emergency purposes," McElhaney said. Oakland police did arrive on the scene to take statements from both parties, who each claimed they were being harassed by the other. The unnamed woman also reportedly cried once she left the park to meet the officers close by. Though a police report was filed, no arrests were made and nobody was giving a citation.

The video has gone viral and coupled with some of the other recent incidents going down around the country, there has been a strong response both on social media, as well as in real life. According to clips uploaded to Twitter, Oakland residents responded to the incident by having a big ass BBQ in the very same park.

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