Another day, another strange racist calling the police on a black family in a public setting for no good reason. This time it’s Tennessee, and an apartment complex pool where (now former) community manager Erica Walker decided that resident Kam Porter and her boyfriend needed a talking to. On July 4, Porter, her boyfriend, and two godchildren, went to the pool. Porter’s boyfriend was wearing socks, sitting on the side of the pool, watching the kids play in the water. According to a Facebook post, Porter explained that Walker came over to admonish him twice, leading to Porter asking what was wrong. When Walker explained that the pool had a no socks, hats, non-swim attire in the pool rule—Porter pointed out that virtually everyone else there, in the water, were wearing hats and T-shirts, and basketball shorts. The only difference here seemed to be that Kam Porter, her boyfriend and the two little kids were the only black people at the pool.
I asked her what was her name and who was she..... I mean I feel like it’s only right that you let me know.
Even a police officer still has to legally identify themselves when they pull you over; therefore, I saw no problem in me asking her can she show me some kind of identification to verify that she was the property manager. Her response was, “I’m not about to go back and forward with you. You all need to leave.”
In the video, Porter pans over the pool to show all of the non-black people breaking these “important” rules. When Porter says she wasn’t going to be singled out Walker told her “I’ll just call the police.” The police came, and Walker didn’t get the satisfaction she was looking for as the officer didn’t see the issue the same way that she did. Porter was rightfully offended, said she was leaving, and asked the officer to stay until she and her boyfriend and the two children left.
"You called the police on me. That could have went a whole other way. We’ve seen that," Porter said. "And I didn’t have anything to say to her. She was very apologetic, I will say that. But at this point, I don’t want an apology. You’ve embarrassed me."
This is the most important point, and while it is unlikely that Erica Walker thought calling the police would end in violence, she was annoyed. She, like many white people in these scenarios, are just annoyed that black people are around and in white people’s spaces. At their most benign, these white people are “uncomfortable” sharing spaces with black people, and at their worst they are so angered by black people that they are willing to put lives in danger to not have to face their own fears.
According to WREG13, the management company sent them this message, saying Ms. Walker has been fired from her position.
"After assessing statements from Ms. Porter and determining that this former employee’s actions violate our company’s policies & beliefs, she is no longer employed by Riverset Apartments."
Good.