A Man Called the Cops on a Black Family at Their Neighborhood Pool and Lost His Job for It
On the Fourth of July, Jasmine Edwards and her son went to the pool in their North Carolina private community. When she got there, a man insisted that she show him her ID to prove that she lived in the neighborhood; after she told him that she didn't have to provide him with any ID, he called the police.
In a video of the encounter that Edwards posted on Facebook, she, other residents, and the cops who showed up struggle to reason with the man, later identified as Adam Bloom. Despite several people pointing out there was no policy that people had to have ID to prove they were residents, Bloom claimed that he asked people for proof of residency "a couple times" each week. An officer suggested Edwards show if she had a key card to enter the pool, and when she produced one, Bloom said that's "good enough for me today.” He then turned and left while Edwards asked him if he wanted to apologize.
Bloom may have expected the story to end there, but it didn't. The video took off online, and he not only had to resign as "pool chairman" of the local homeowners association, but his employer, South Carolina-based Sonoco, announced Friday that they were firing him after receiving complaints.
If what happened to "Aqua Adam" (one of the many hashtags Bloom earned) sounds familiar, it's because it's the same thing that happened to Alison Ettel, otherwise known as "Permit Patty," who went viral after calling the cops on a young black girl selling bottled water in her California neighborhood. Ettel claimed that she was only pretending to call the police, but a recording of her 911 call proved that wasn't the case. She soon lost her position as CEO of a cannabis company.
Some sympathetic souls might argue that losing their jobs is too a harsh penalty, but thus far none of the people in these viral videos have faced any legal repercussions for treating 911 as a customer service hotline. As data scientist Samuel Sinyangwe points out, in many states, including California, it's illegal to make a 911 call in order to intimidate a person:
Furthermore, with so many instances of police escalating routine situations into violent encounters against unarmed black adults and children, every call like this has the potential to turn deadly. If the thought of causing a neighbor to get shot isn't enough of a deterrent, then maybe the threat of public shaming is.
