A young boy came to the defense of a black man on the Fourth of July as the boy’s father questioned and later called the police on the man who said he was waiting for a friend at a San Francisco apartment building.
Wesly Michel recorded his encounter with the boy and his father, who appears to be white, and shared the video on Facebook, where it has garnered more than 1.2 million views.
During the three-and-a-half-minute recording, the boy can be heard pleading with his father not to call police on Michel, whom the father says is a “trespasser” in his building.
It’s not so much that this is a surprising story it’s just a reminder that in the State that I love and call home we have BBQ Becky, Permit Patty and this dude.
"Dad, don't. Please go," the boy says. "Daddy go. It's the better; I agree with him, daddy."
The boy begins to cry as his father describes Michel to police.
"Daddy, I don't like this. Let's go," he says.
"Listen to your son, walk away," Michel says. "I will stop this. I will stop the recording."
Michel's friend walks up as the man is on the phone with police. The friend appears to come from outside the building.
"Told you. Let's go now," the young boy says and begins pulling his dad. "Daddy, look what you've gotten us into. Let's go!"
sigh
"I believe that ultimately everyone wants to be seen for who they are and not prejudged," he said. "I'm an American, a brother, a son and an ambitious Engineer who loves to code and wants to greatly contribute to the tech world in (San Francisco), a city that I love."
www.mercurynews.com/…
Christopher Cukor’s statment
A chance encounter this past weekend has upended my life in unexpected ways. Many of you know the parts that you’ve seen — the video of a conversation that happened outside my home. I’d like to share some extra details about that event that I think add some important context.
First just some background on that day:
- I was leaving my building with my child to take him to a friend’s house.
- Like many in San Francisco, I live in a building with a security callbox and residents in the building count on that security measure.
- I noticed Wesly Michel caught the door and entered the building without using the callbox. I did what came naturally and asked where he was going. I want to be clear on this point, this is something I do regularly, regardless of who the other person is.
- I offered to hold the door open while he used the callbox to contact his friend.
- As I learned later, Wesly was a friend of a guest of a resident in the building. The building resident was not expecting Wesly.
- When the encounter turned confrontational and I couldn’t resolve it myself, I called the police.
Here’s where the complexity begins. I was coming into this situation with my unique history.
My father was murdered outside his home by a trespasser who he confronted alone. For my child’s safety, my safety and that of the building, I felt it was necessary to get help in this situation. Furthermore, I’ve encountered trespassers in my building and we’ve been robbed several times. This is not uncommon in San Francisco and the bad actors are all different colors.
I now realize that Wesly was reacting based on his unique history as well. Unfortunately there is a terrible pattern of people calling the authorities regarding people of color for no other reason than their race. The last thing I ever intended was to echo that history — and I’m sorry my actions caused Welsy to feel unfairly targeted due to his race.
I believe people are good at heart. It’s our past experiences and fears that cloud even our best intentions. I hope Wesly will read this and understand my history as I have tried to understand his.
I am hopeful
this post was edited to include Cukor’s statement