A New York woman became the subject of ridicule and hatred on social
media after she falsely accused a boy of groping her while she was
shopping inside a deli.
Teresa Klein, who is white, created a commotion earlier this week
outside the Sahara Deli Market in Brooklyn’s Flatbus
h neighborhood as
she appeared to tell a 911 dispatcher that the boy, who is black,
assaulted her. The spectacle was captured in a now-viral video, and Klein, a 53-year-old Brooklyn resident, has been nicknamed #CornerstoreCaroline.
“No, I want the cops here right now,” Klein said as she held her phone to her ear and a crowd of angry onlookers began to gather around.
The
boy, wearing a tucked-in green shirt and carrying a backpack, began to
cry as the woman in aviator g
lasses and knee-high boots accused him of
grabbing her.
The crowd grew angrier, screaming at Klein, who had covered her other ear as she continued to talk to the 911 operator.
“I just was sexually assaulted by a child,” Klein said.
“Are you seriously calling the police?” a woman can be heard saying.
New York resident Jason Littlejohn recorded the Wednesday incident and shared it on Facebook, where it has since been viewed more than 5 million times. The incident comes amid a string of controversies involving black or brown people who have found themselves the subjects of 911 calls. Such false-alarm emergency calls over non-emergency incidents, many of which have been captured on video, have raised questions about whether these calls had less to do with what someone was doing, but because of the person’s race.
On Friday, Klein went
back to the store, where reporters surrounded her. Later, Klein, the
reporters and several onlookers, many with
phones held up, crowded
inside the small deli, where surveillance footage of the alleged
grabbing was being played on a screen mounted on a wall.
The video showed Klein standing at the register as the boy walked past behind her with his blue backpack and a plastic bag in his right hand. As the boy’s bag appeared to brush against Klein, she looked behind her, seeming startled.
Another Facebook video, also uploaded by Littlejohn, showed Klein watching the surveillance footage. Onlookers screamed at Klein and called her a liar after the footage revealed she was wrong. But Klein seemed oblivious and spoke only to the reporters, who asked her what she thought after watching the footage.
“The child accidentally brushed against me,” she acknowl
edged.
Looking into
one of the TV cameras, she apologized to the boy, whose identity was
not known. “Young man, I don’t know your name, but I’m sorry.”
The Washington Post was unable to reach Klein on Saturday. A number she was heard giving to the dispatcher during her 911 call is no longer in service. She told Fox affiliate WNYW that she is not racist, and that she called 911 because the boy’s mother had become very aggressive toward her.
New York police said the department did not receive any complaints or 911 calls coming from the deli’s address.
There have been several incidents in the past year involving black people whose banal activities were viewed with suspicious lens. Hence came #LivingWhileBlack.
For a 12-year-old black boy in Ohio, it was mowing the lawn. For an 8-year-old girl in California, it was selling water outside the apartment building where she lives. And for a pair of young black men in Philadelphia, it was sitting inside a Starbucks waiting for a person they were supposed to meet. For a black lawmaker in Oregon, it was canvassing in her district. For a Yale University graduate student, it was napping in one of the school’s common rooms. For a group of black sorority girls in Pennsylvania, it was picking up trash on a highway as part of a community service.
For former Obama administration White House staffer Darren Martin, it was moving into his new Manhattan apartment. Martin is one of a group of black people who wrote to the House and Senate judiciary committees last summer, asking for a hearing on racial profiling, The Washington Post’s Cleve R. Wootson Jr. reported.
In September, New York state Sen. Jesse Hamilton (D-Brooklyn) held a town hall meeting called Living While Black. Hamilton also had introduced legislation that would make falsely reporting an incident a hate crime. The bill remains in committee.
“No, I want the cops here right now,” Klein said as she held her phone to her ear and a crowd of angry onlookers began to gather around.
The
boy, wearing a tucked-in green shirt and carrying a backpack, began to
cry as the woman in aviator gThe crowd grew angrier, screaming at Klein, who had covered her other ear as she continued to talk to the 911 operator.
“I just was sexually assaulted by a child,” Klein said.
“Are you seriously calling the police?” a woman can be heard saying.
New York resident Jason Littlejohn recorded the Wednesday incident and shared it on Facebook, where it has since been viewed more than 5 million times. The incident comes amid a string of controversies involving black or brown people who have found themselves the subjects of 911 calls. Such false-alarm emergency calls over non-emergency incidents, many of which have been captured on video, have raised questions about whether these calls had less to do with what someone was doing, but because of the person’s race.
The video showed Klein standing at the register as the boy walked past behind her with his blue backpack and a plastic bag in his right hand. As the boy’s bag appeared to brush against Klein, she looked behind her, seeming startled.
Another Facebook video, also uploaded by Littlejohn, showed Klein watching the surveillance footage. Onlookers screamed at Klein and called her a liar after the footage revealed she was wrong. But Klein seemed oblivious and spoke only to the reporters, who asked her what she thought after watching the footage.
“The child accidentally brushed against me,” she acknowl
The Washington Post was unable to reach Klein on Saturday. A number she was heard giving to the dispatcher during her 911 call is no longer in service. She told Fox affiliate WNYW that she is not racist, and that she called 911 because the boy’s mother had become very aggressive toward her.
New York police said the department did not receive any complaints or 911 calls coming from the deli’s address.
There have been several incidents in the past year involving black people whose banal activities were viewed with suspicious lens. Hence came #LivingWhileBlack.
For a 12-year-old black boy in Ohio, it was mowing the lawn. For an 8-year-old girl in California, it was selling water outside the apartment building where she lives. And for a pair of young black men in Philadelphia, it was sitting inside a Starbucks waiting for a person they were supposed to meet. For a black lawmaker in Oregon, it was canvassing in her district. For a Yale University graduate student, it was napping in one of the school’s common rooms. For a group of black sorority girls in Pennsylvania, it was picking up trash on a highway as part of a community service.
For former Obama administration White House staffer Darren Martin, it was moving into his new Manhattan apartment. Martin is one of a group of black people who wrote to the House and Senate judiciary committees last summer, asking for a hearing on racial profiling, The Washington Post’s Cleve R. Wootson Jr. reported.
In September, New York state Sen. Jesse Hamilton (D-Brooklyn) held a town hall meeting called Living While Black. Hamilton also had introduced legislation that would make falsely reporting an incident a hate crime. The bill remains in committee.
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