Happy Friday!
There’s a new outrage going viral tonight, this time out of Oakland, CA where a white woman was videotaped calling the cops on a black family attempting to enjoy a BBQ at a local park. The caller thought the black family was breaking the park’s rules by having a charcoal BBQ outside of a designated area. The black family disagreed.
Now, we’re all for people being able to BBQ in public parks. It’s great! But, in California where there’s a constant fire hazard plus liberal politicians worried about smog and all, we get that there are rules.
According to Shaun King, the grillers in the video are friends of his and he says they were “In an approved grill zone. With an approved grill.” Spoiler? NOPE.
First up, here’s King’s tweet:
It just happened again.
My friends Kenzie & Deacon were at the park in Oakland.
In an approved grill zone.
With an approved grill.But a white woman sees them and…CALLS THE POLICE.
She was obsessed with getting them arrested.https://t.co/C9CBhhAZcc
— Shaun King (@shaunking) May 10, 2018
The story was also picked up by NowThis and their clip was viewed and racked up hundreds of thousands of more views:
This woman called the police on a Black family for having a BBQ pic.twitter.com/vU4fTUbNc1
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) May 11, 2018
But as KRON points out, the woman caller — however annoying — was in the right:
According to an official Oakland Park and Rec map of Lake Merritt, there are six designated barbecue locations, three stationary charcoal locations, and three non-charcoal portable grill locations.
Smith and Snider were charcoal grilling in a non-charcoal grilling location.
Police did finally arrive and — rightfully so in our opinion — “no citations were given and no arrests were made.”
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