Alison Ettel, the white woman caught on video calling police to report an 8-year-old black girl selling bottled water in San Francisco, now claims she has received “all kinds of threats” since the video went viral.
Ettel, 44, told The Today Show she received “all kinds of threats. Horrible, horrible images and death threats. All for something that was an escalated miscommunication between two neighbors.”
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On Saturday, Erin Austin and her 8-year-old daughter, Jordan Rodgers, were selling water bottles outside their home to raise money to go to Disneyland after Austin lost her job. The short clip, which Austin posted on Instagram and her cousin shared on Twitter, begins with Austin following Ettel, who is already on the phone.
“This woman don’t want a little girl to sell some water. She’s calling police on an 8-year-old little girl,” Austin said in the video. Then, Ettel tries to duck under a wall.
“You can hide all you want — the whole world is going to see you boo,” Austin says.
Ettel then says into the phone “…Illegally selling water without a permit.”
“On my property,” Austin said.
“It’s not your property,” Ettel said at the end of the clip.
Ettel said she was working with her windows open, and could not work while Austin and Rogers shouted about the water they had on sale.
“I tried to be polite but I was stern,” Ettel told Today. “And I said, ‘Please, I’m trying to work. You’re screaming. You’re yelling, and people have open windows. It’s a hot day. Can you please keep it down?’”
Austin denied Ettel did that.
“She never asked us to be quiet,” Austin said. “She came out and directly demanded to see a permit to sell water from an 8-year-old.”
Ettel also told HuffPost she was bluffing and only “pretending” to call police. Robert Ruecam, a spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department, told NBC News they did not receive a complaint about Rogers and Austin selling water.
Ettel, the founder of cannabis tincture company TreatWell Health, also told HuffPost there was “no racial component” to her actions.
Meanwhile, Austin said on Instagram that a musician bought her and her family four tickets to Disneyland.
“I never expected all of this to come from me posting a video of a woman who was harassing my daughter,” Austin wrote. “Thank you for teaching her all people aren’t so s–y.”
Photo Credit: Twitter / Raj
