A neighbor sees someone who may be breaking into a home. Civic-minded and filled with neighborly concern, the witness dials 911 and asks police to respond. Exactly 19 officers do. This is not the mayor’s home, or the president’s. It’s not a governor’s mansion or that of a sitting U. S. senator. And no, it doesn’t belong to a foreign diplomat either. It’s an apartment in a Santa Monica, California, complex, and it belongs to Fay Wells—all 5 feet 7 inches and 125 pounds of her. Oh, and of course, she’s black.
Wells recounted her experience for the Washington Post in a piece entitled, “My white neighbor thought I was breaking into my own apartment. Nineteen cops showed up.”
Wells escaped from the encounter physically unharmed but thoroughly traumatized, as she tells both a harrowing and callous story. Harrowing: Police with guns drawn, who do not identify themselves as cops, who readily expect answers from her but could not care less when she requests answers for their over-the-top response.
The callousness comes from her so-called “neighbor.” He claimed he called police because he had never seen her before (Wells says she had been living in the apartment for seven months). That part is somewhat understandable. The neighbor then flipped her off, saying “I’m an attorney so you can go f--- yourself” in response to her questions regarding the gravity of his actions—the “what could have happened” part. It’s a classic display of privilege at work: “I don’t have to tell you anything, lady who could’ve been killed.”
Some observers say the case is reminiscent of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., whose arrest in his own home in July 2009 led to President Obama’s “beer summit” with Gates and the arresting officer.
Friday, Nov 20, 2015 · 5:30:27 PM +00:00 · Thandisizwe Chimurenga
Jacqueline Seabrooks, Santa Monica, California’s police chief, responded to Wells’ charges in the Washington Post article by saying she could see all sides of the equation, but that her officers did respond properly. The police department also posted on its website audio it says is of their officers speaking with Wells after the incident. You can find that audio and read more here.
Gates’ arrest came after returning home from a trip and not being able to enter his house due to the door being jammed. A “neighbor” called 911 to report two black men, one of whom was seen using his shoulder to force the door open. The responding officer was eventually satisfied that Gates was the legal homeowner, but when Gates began to verbally harangue the officer for allegedly racially profiling him, following the officer out of his home, Gates was arrested for disorderly conduct. A subsequent report on the incident found that while both individuals bore responsibility for what had occurred, it also stated as part of its 10 recommendations that “law enforcement officials should also take a hard look at cases where the only victim in a disorderly conduct charge is the police officer, as opposed to cases in which the arrested person had other victims.”
Because ”contempt of cop“ is a real thing, ya know?
More to the point, Wells’ story bears more resemblance to Tamir Rice’s case than Gates’. A caller to 911 specifically said that a person had a gun “that was probably fake” twice, but was pointing it at people which could, uh, be problematic. The solution: Call the cops. And we all know how that case turned out.
The 911 audio of the “neighbor” in Wells’ case is also available at the Washington Post link above. The caller very specifically says he doesn’t know if the apartment is vacant or not, and that he doesn’t think it’s “some sort of crazy robbery.”
Which begs the question in both these cases: Why are you calling 911 in the first place?
Both Wells and the Washington Post were given differing names for the officers who responded to her apartment that night. One list contained the wrong number of officers. Wells also states that police told her that an official report was not warranted, even though 19 police officers were on the scene; the Washington Post states they were told by the Santa Monica PD that was a standard response to a burglary call.
Wells has filed an official complaint on the incident.