White couple calls Mexican-American 'criminal,' blocks from his building

A white couple blocked a young Mexican American man from entering the San Francisco apartment complex where he lives in, saying "they would not let a criminal into their complex as they needed to protect it."

Michael Barajas, a UC-Berkeley graduate and a community educator for a biopharmaceutical company, tried to park his car in the apartment complex's garage Tuesday night when the driver in front of him refused to pull forward.

Barajas, 28,*told NBC's Bay Area affiliate KNTV*that the situation kept escalating and turned dramatic when the white man in the car got aggressive, which prompted him*to start recording.

"Given the current political climate, and certainly I'm Mexican American, and that rhetoric of us being criminals, it just hit hard, it hit close to home," Barajas told KNTV.

The white man claimed Barajas was trespassing and threatened to call police.

"That's fine. Call the cops. Why are you even calling the cops about, Karen?"*the video*shows Barajas responding.

In an*Instagram post, Barajas said the white man "thought I was trying to tailgate them to break in and rob them." One of Barajas' neighbors, who is also white, was outside smoking and intervened in the situation. The driver then got out of a white SUV with Florida plates, beat the neighbor up, "and threatened to shoot us if we didn’t leave," said Barajas.

Security officials and police arrived at the scene and Barajas filed a report alongside his neighbor, even though "the girlfriend tried to pay us to not call the cops and not press battery charges," said Barajas, who has since moved parking spots "as he threatened to shoot us."

"This is NOT OK and this goes to show you that racism is well and alive," said Barajas, adding that four other people walked into the apartment complex through the garage during the incident, and the white man said "nothing to them."

The white man in the video has been identified on social media as William "Hank" Beasley, who worked at Apex Systems, KNTV reported. The technology services company did not identify Beasley but said in*a tweet*that it had fired an employee after "an internal review of the incident" and will not tolerate violent or racist behavior.

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https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/06/28/white-couple-calls-mexican-american-criminal-blocks-from-his-building/24539746/

Reply 1

Napp

The bit i find most interesting is that you still use AOL... i though they'd died a death eons ago?

Reply 2

Devon_Weston

Original post by Napp

The bit i find most interesting is that you still use AOL... i though they'd died a death eons ago?

I thought everyone still used AOL, I also use MySpace. 🙂

Reply 3

Napp

Original post by Devon_Weston

I thought everyone still used AOL, I also use MySpace. 🙂

It's like a time warp back to the 2000's :tongue:

Could be worse though, could be bebo.

Reply 4

Devon_Weston

Original post by Napp

It's like a time warp back to the 2000's :tongue:

Could be worse though, could be bebo.

I've owned my AOL account for years, I don't feel like switching to Outlook or Gmail. I used to adore Bebo, but sadly it's no longer around.

Reply 5

Just my opinion

What happened to Bebo?

Reply 6

Napp

Original post by Just my opinion

What happened to Bebo?

Facebook took it out back and put two in the back of its head.

Reply 7

username4986690

This seems like a fairly standard story in modern America.

Reply 8

IanDangerously

Original post by Napp

The bit i find most interesting is that you still use AOL... i though they'd died a death eons ago?

I think they’re mostly just a brand for online news now. Their dial-up service was brilliant but they kinda got left behind when broadband took over :frown: