Ever gotten caught in a surprise rainstorm and headed for shelter at the closest place you could find? That’s what Brooklyn resident Darsell Obregon did when walking through Park Slope on Sunday. As Obregon waited for her Uber in the entryway of a random apartment, a young white woman who lived in the building demanded she leave.
"I was in #Brooklyn walking to the train when a sudden rain storm began and I hid in the doorway OUTSIDE of a random apartment in #ParkSlope to shield myself from the rain and call an Uber," Obregon wrote in a post on Facebook. "No more than three minutes later a young woman who lives in the building opened the front door and told me that I can not stand there and had to leave."
The resident, Arabella Juniper Torres, then decided to do what so many other white people have done for no reason: she called the police. Obregon, who is black, began recording. Check out her full post below.
In the videos you can here the resident telling Obregon to leave, and talking with police about her physical characteristics. Eventually, Obregon's Uber driver arrived and the two drove off despite Torres' threats to the driver.
Unfortunately this is far from an isolated incident. The summer has unearthed #PermitPatty, #BBQBecky, and countless other incidents without cute hashtags where white people call the police on black and brown people for absolutely no reason. It’s a tale as old as time, and thanks to viral videos is only now getting the kind of mainstream attention this issue needs.
Viral videos of violence against people of color are not limited to police shootings. This summer has exposed just how prevalent white people’s tendency to calling the police is, even when there’s nothing illegal going on (and even when they're the ones gentrifying an area, but I digress). So when in doubt, put your phones down.The Root has some step-by-step instructions on how to not call the police on black people, but here’s a simple tip: don’t.
