'I am deeply sorry': Woman who called police on San Francisco man stenciling 'Black Lives Matter' on his property apologizes
SAN FRANCISCO -- The woman seen in a viral video threatening to call the police on a man stenciling "Black Lives Matter" outside of his home has apologized.
The woman, Lisa Alexander, apologized in a statement Sunday, saying in part, "The last 48 hours has taught me that my actions were those of someone who is not aware of the damage caused by being ignorant and naive to racial inequalities. When I watch the video I am shocked and sad that I behaved the way I did. It was disrespectful to Mr. Juanillo and I am deeply sorry for that."
James Juanillo, who identifies as a person of color, posted a video to Twitter Friday showing his encounter with the man and woman, identified only as Lisa and Robert.
FULL VIDEO: SF Man says white couple called police for stenciling 'Black Lives Matter' on his property
The video begins with the couple asking Juanillo if he was "defacing private property" moments after he finished writing the phrase on a retaining wall outside of his home.
Our sister station KGO-TV interviewed Juanillo, who said he clearly stenciled in chalk, which will wash away in the rain. "That leaves only the message to be problematic," he said.
"If I did live here, and this was my property, this would be absolutely fine? And you don't know if I live here, if this is my property?" Juanillo asked in the video.
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Alexander then claimed that she knew Juanillo didn't own the property because they "know the person who does live here."
Juanillo encouraged them to call the police if they feel unsafe, which they eventually did.
"The police came and recognized me immediately as a resident of the house and left without getting out of their patrol car. I didn't even show them my ID," Juanillo told Storyful.
Brad Gilbertson, who is one of the owners of the property, said he doesn't know the couple in the video.
"She just claimed she knew the owner of the house. She doesn't know me. I thought she was out of line," he said.
After Twitter users identified the woman in the video as Alexander, CEO of the skincare line LAFACE, makeup subscription service Birchbox responded with a statement.
"We have not worked with LAFACE for several years and, as a result of the CEO's actions today, have officially cut ties with them," the statement read in part.
Juanillo said he hopes this video helps his community come together against racism.
"What she did is polite racism. It's respectable racism. 'Respectfully, sir, I don't think you belong here,'" he said.
In her apology Sunday afternoon, Alexander said:
"I want to apologize directly to Mr. Juanillo. There are not enough words to describe how truly sorry I am for being disrespectful to him last Tuesday when I made the decision to question him about what he was doing in front of his home. I should have minded my own business.
The last 48 hours has taught me that my actions were those of someone who is not aware of the damage caused by being ignorant and naive to racial inequalities. When I watch the video I am shocked and sad that I behaved the way I did. It was disrespectful to Mr. Juanillo and I am deeply sorry for that. I did not realize at the time that my actions were racist and have learned a painful lesson. I am taking a hard look at the meaning behind white privilege and am committed to growing from this experience. I would love to have coffee with Mr. Juanillo in our neighborhood so I can apologize in person and share a dialogue where I can continue to learn and grow and be a better person.
