Delivery Man Questioned by White Resident: "You Are Why People Get Killed"
Published June 6 2021, 3:31 p.m. ET
Almost exactly a year after a white woman, Amy Cooper, called the cops on a Black man named Christian Cooper — after he asked her to put a leash on her dog in Central Park — yet another recording of a white person threatening to call police on a Black man for simply existing. This time, however, the disturbing series of events went down in San Francisco. And the delivery man questioned by a white resident is going viral for calling out the racist behavior.
A delivery man questioned by a white resident recorded the entire incident.
Footage of the encounter was shared via Instagram on Thursday, June 3, 2021. Since then, the video has been viewed more than 173,000 times. And it's not difficult to see why.
The video features the voice of a Black delivery driver (who can be heard behind his smartphone camera) during an encounter after a white resident yelled at him from the window of his home located in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, Calif.
The resident then proceeded to walk to the halfway house at which the Black man was delivering medication, stood in his way as he was trying to leave, and demanded identification.
"Who the f--- are you,” the delivery man replied, asking that the white man put his mask on. “Why do you think that I have to identify myself?"
“I want identification,” the resident said. "Who are you with? Who are those addressed to?"
The delivery man then pointed out, "It's none of your business. Every time I come around here, motherf---ers like you make my job harder."
The delivery man called out the white resident: "You are why people get killed."
As shown in the video, the Black man refused to identify himself and instead asked the white man what his name was. (He eventually said his name was John, but didn't provide a last name.) The white man threatened to call the police until the delivery driver pointed out that it's illegal to make false 911 calls based on race in San Francisco thanks to the Caren Act that was passed in 2020.
The delivery man then continued to call out the resident for insinuating that he was a porch pirate who was going around stealing packages simply based on his race — and then threatening to call the cops because he wouldn't provide identification. (Spoiler alert: You're not obligated to provide your ID to random strangers on the sidewalk.)
"You are why people get killed and end up on the f---ing news, you pile of s---!" the delivery driver told him.
"For those who don't know its reputation, pac heights is one of the most affluent, snobby, and white neighborhoods in San Francisco," the Instagram caption reads. "It's a neighborhood of old money, unlike the heavily gentrified neighborhoods where new tech money has displaced historically black and brown communities. Everyone who grew up here knows that.”
The delivery driver went on to explain that he makes sure to “rarely cross” into the neighborhood “because this type of thing is a common occurrence in my everyday life."
He added: "I posed no threat to his safety or his property. I have a strong feeling that he wouldn't have harassed me if I was of a lighter complexion, but this is an everyday thing when you're a man of color living in America."
Hopefully, this encounter has taught this resident to think twice before racially profiling people in his neighborhood — and then threatening to call law enforcement on them for no good reason.
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