#BBQBecky
In May 2018, #BBQBecky (Jennifer Schulte), a white woman
caught on camera, called
the police on a group of black men having a barbeque in an area where
grills are prohibited in a park in Oakland, California.
 |
| #BBQBecky |
#PermitPatty
Just last week, June 24, 2018, another white
woman now known as #PermitPatty (Alison Ettel) was caught on camera threatening to call
the police on a black 8-year-old girl selling water bottles without a
permit in San Francisco, California.
 |
| #PermitPatty |
#PoolPatrolPaula –
 |
#PoolPatrolPaula & Mugshot
|
(Reprinted from CNN.com)
(CNN) A white woman the internet has
nicknamed "Pool Patrol Paula" was charged with assaulting a black
teenager at a community pool in South Carolina.
She allegedly shouted racial slurs at the young man and told
him he didn't belong there, according to a police report from the Dorchester
County Sheriff's Office. Days later, the report said, she attacked the officers
who came to arrest her, biting one's arm.
The 15-year-old victim had been invited to swim in the
Summerville, South Carolina, pool by a friend, according to the report. The
woman, Stephanie Sebby-Strempel, 38, told him to "get out" and hit the
boy multiple times before threatening to call the police on Saturday, the
report said.
That part was caught on camera. The video was posted to Facebook where it has since been viewed more than
one million times.
In the video, filmed by the victim, Sebby-Strempel
aggressively swats at the boy's phone camera and hits him as he and his friends
leave the pool area, saying, "How's that feel?"
"Get out! Get out now!" she yells. "There's
three numbers I can dial: 9-1-1. Okay? Get out. Little punks."
After Sebby-Strempel told them to leave, the victim said
they were "respectful and said, yes ma'am" and began to exit the
pool, according to the report. He also said that Sebby-Strempel used
"racial slurs" and hit him in the chest once and face at least twice.
No racial slurs could be heard in the video.
The police concluded that Sebby-Strempel was "clearly
the aggressor" in the "unprovoked assault," according to the report.
The story doesn't end there. When officers arrived at her
home with a warrant for her arrest on Monday, she pushed one detective into a
wall, injuring his knees, and bit a second detective on the arm, breaking the
skin, according to the Dorchester County Sheriff's Office.
After that, Sebby-Strempel was charged with two counts of
assaulting a police officer while resisting arrest, along with assault and
battery for the pool incident.
In a press conference Tuesday, the boy's family spoke out
about the incident. "Basically,
this is a situation that should have never happened," Deanna RocQuermore,
the victim's mother, told reporters. RocQuermore also commended her son's self
control and said she intends to pursue the case against Sebby-Strempel at the
"highest level."
"No child including mine or anybody else's ever, ever,
deserves that type of abuse or treatment or to be struck not once, not twice,
but three times by someone that is upset because of the color of someone's
skin, and they feel as though they don't belong at their swimming pool,"
RocQuermore said.
Facing
charges and out of a job
Sebby-Strempel was given a $65,000 bond by a Dorchester
County Judge after being jailed for one charge of third degree assault and two
counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer while resisting arrest,
according to CNN affiliate WCSC.
CNN's attempts to reach Sebby-Strempel and her lawyer were
unsuccessful, but WCSC reported that the attorney was not worried about the
assault against the minor because there is "more than one side of the
story on that charge." It's not known if she has entered a plea.
Sebby-Strempel used to be an independent consultant for
skincare company Rodan + Fields, but after her actions, the company said in a
statement to CNN that she doesn't work there anymore.
"After assessing statements from law enforcement and determining that this former Independent Consultant's actions violate our policies, she is no longer affiliated with Rodan + Fields," the statement said.
"After assessing statements from law enforcement and determining that this former Independent Consultant's actions violate our policies, she is no longer affiliated with Rodan + Fields," the statement said.
#PoolPatrolPaula
is just the latest example
Dubbed by social media as #PoolPatrolPaula, Sebby-Strempel
is the latest addition to a trend in which Twitter users are calling out white
people for their apparent racism.
Just last week, a white woman now known as #PermitPatty was
caught on camera threatening to call
the police on a black 8-year-old girl selling water bottles without a
permit in San Francisco, California. She told CNN's Dan Simon that her
complaint wasn't targeted at any particular person. She said she was under a
deadline and was distracted by the shouting coming from outside.
And in May, #BBQBecky, another white woman caught on camera,
called
the police on a group of black men having a barbeque in an area where
grills are prohibited in a park in Oakland, California.
These videos are part of a nationwide conversation about
black people being threatened and censured for seemingly harmless acts.
That's why another popular hashtag for the pool incident
involving Sebby-Strempel is #SwimmingWhileBlack. It's only the most recent in a
long string of mundane activities like golfing,
napping,
leaving
an Airbnb and sitting
in Starbucks in which black people have been racially profiled and a white
person has called the police.
CNN's Paul Murphy, Travis Nichols and Kate Conerly
contributed to this report.
- -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
You have to ask yourself: “What is the matter with these
women?”
It’s incredibly embarrassing that these white, Caucasian
women have nothing better to do than make
a mountain out of a mole hill. But why?
Are they personally in any
physical danger? Probably not.
Are they racist as these three cases did involve
African-American citizens, two involved children and one involved a group of
adults…. Having a barbecue, of all things?
In each case, the women lost not only their minds, but their
livelihoods. So, maybe there was some
justice or karma at play. What these
women failed to realize at every turn was that they are privileged simply by virtue
of their race, being white/Caucasian.
Is that to say one should never call 911? Of course
not.
Should more thought have gone into things prior to those
phone calls? Absolutely.
We regularly see on the news and on social media about
people misusing the 911 system.
Everything from pizza delivery to tree pruning to parking space
arguments, and on and on.
What’s missing or going on in these women’s lives that they
feel the need to call the police over what amounts to nothing?
It seems as though, in each case, the women might have
approached these individuals and actually talked
to them to find out what was going on, rather than take a more aggressive tone.
Hey, who knows? They might have been
invited to join the barbecue, or learn something from a young person
selling bottled water, or horror of
horrors, learned about friendship from two swimming buddies. Maybe?
I
feel like it’s more than appropriate to remind them, “Do unto others…”
