A woman who called the police on a black man for simply wearing socks at a pool was fired from her job, according to CBS News.
Erica Walker was employed by Trilogy Residential Management, where she was a manager of one of the company’s apartment developments in Memphis, Tennessee. On the Fourth of July, she confronted a woman named Camry Porter, a resident of the apartment development, and her boyfriend at the pool, demanding that he remove his socks. After he declined, Walker decided to call the police.
The video of the incident was shared thousands of times on Facebook, and caught the attention of local news outlets. Porter says she felt that she and her boyfriend were discriminated against, telling CBS affiliate WREG-TV, “It’s 25, 30-plus white people out here and you haven’t said anything — you’re partying with them. You’re partying with them! But when we come, it’s an issue.”
After her call to the police went viral and garnered nationwide attention, the company said Walker will “never be employed by Trilogy Residential Management, LLC or any of its properties in the future.”
This incident and subsequent video recalls others that have blown up on social media over in recent weeks. Last week, a man had police confront a black woman and her child because he didn’t believe they were members of the community pool. After the woman demonstrated to police that she had a key card for the pool and was in fact a member, the man lost his job.
This isn’t limited to poolside incidents, either. A black family had the police called on them for grilling in a park’s designated grilling zone. A black child’s neighbors called the police on him while he was mowing the lawn (and later the called the police again for the audacity of playing in their neighbor’s yard). A black firefighter conducting city inspections was reported to police because residents thought he was suspicious. A San Francisco woman who would become known as #PermitPatty called the cops on a black child for selling water. And the list goes on.