A white woman living in San Francisco is drawing backlash online after a video was posted to Twitter that shows her and a male partner calling the police on a man for stenciling “Black Lives Matter” in chalk on his own property.
The Twitter user, who uses the handle Jamietoons, is a local business owner and recorded the incident Thursday evening.
In the video the woman accosts the homeowner asking if he lives in the house, and requests he spread his message elsewhere. The woman also says that she and her companion know the person who lives there, to which the homeowner filming replies, “I suggest you call them, or call the police, because you’re accusing me of a crime.”
“A white couple call the police on me, a person of color, for stencilling a #BLM chalk message on my own front retaining wall. ‘Karen’ lies and says she knows that I don’t live in my own house, because she knows the person who lives here. #blacklivesmatter,” Jamietoons said.
Social media users speculated the woman is Lisa Alexander — and while Jamietoons doesn’t disclose his name in the video, the two people on his property do identify themselves as “Lisa and Robert.”
Lisa Alexander is the co-founder of Bay Area-based vegan skincare brand LAFACE. According to Newsweek, Alexander posted a statement on Twitter that said, “I asked if he lived there because if he had said yes then everything would have been fine as it was his property. Being a good neighbor is important where everyone takes care of each other. It is too bad he took it in a different direction.” This Twitter statement along with Alexander’s personal Twitter account have since been deleted. LAFACE’s Twitter account and website were both recently taken offline. Attempts to contact Alexander were unsuccessful.
Monthly personal grooming subscription box company Birchbox said on Twitter Saturday that it condemned Alexander’s actions and clarified the company was no longer working with her to promote or sell LAFACE products.
“We condemn the actions of Lisa Alexander,” Birchbox’s U.K. account tweeted. “We have not worked with LAFACE for several years & as a result of the CEO’s actions today have officially cut ties with them. We’ve removed their products from our website & will not be working with them in the future. #blacklivesmatter.”
The homeowner said the couple did call the police, who arrived and didn’t even need to step out of the car to assess the situation. Responding to a Twitter user who said the homeowner should have just used his keys to go inside the house, Jamietoons replied, “It was funner to know they watched the police leave without even getting outta the car!”
https://twitter.com/AggregateError/status/1271537446765965313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1271599659136368640&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Fwhite-woman-questions-man-who-wrote-black-lives-matter-chalk-1510673
her name is Lisa C Alexander, founder and CEO of @LAFACESkinCare which she claims is a "socially responsible" brand. She deleted her twitter @lisacalexander1. pic.twitter.com/p7DjuF9t1L
— Lacy (@tueslay) June 13, 2020
https://twitter.com/BirchboxUK/status/1271831025765748736
