Denver Karen followed Black man and told him to 'get out' of the neighborhood for taking pictures of her house
A female dog walker received backlash after a viral video showed her following a Black man down a street in Denver, Colorado, and telling him to "get out" of the neighborhood. However, the dog walker claims the video does not capture the complete story. The pair is seen in the footage arguing with each other when another dog walker approaches the scene. The Black male is heard asking the woman why she was "asking me about the picture?" When she responds, the man appears to dismiss the woman and says "good morning, have a nice day" before turning around and walking away from her. The woman is then seen walking in his direction and telling him to "get out of here."
Meanwhile, the woman recording the video tells her to "let him walk." Upon realizing she's being filmed, the first woman says "Oh, you're having a problem with this?" before attempting to call over the person filming the incident, but she replies, "I don't want to 'come here.'"
A girl walking her dog in Denver records a woman harassing a young black man who is simply walking down the street — saying, “get out of here".
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) July 6, 2020
Come on, man...pic.twitter.com/7Zi3XldkPn
The woman, who eventually walks away with her dog, defended her actions later during a conversation with Fox 31. According to her, she confronted the man after she saw him taking pictures of her house. Identified only as Margie, the woman explained that the video didn't quite capture what led to the altercation, which took place when she was on her way home after walking her dog.
“I saw this guy taking pictures of our house. He was down kind of into the bushes, looking up at our house,” she told Fox31. “I didn’t say I lived here, because I didn’t want him to know that. I said, ‘What are you doing? Why are you taking pictures of that house?’ All he had to do is saying something like, ‘Oh I think it’s really pretty,’ or something.”
Margie told the outlet she wasn't comfortable going home after the confrontation, and so decided to follow the man instead. It was at this point that the other woman began filming, she said. “The people behind thought that I was doing it because he was Black. It wasn’t because he was Black, it was because he was taking pictures of our house,” said Margie.
She also responded to reports that several people on Reddit and Twitter were branding her a racist over the video. “Those people—everybody is a racist, no matter what you do. That’s about the only thing they know how to say. I have Black friends, I have all kinds of friends—Hispanic friends. That is the most ridiculous thing,” Margie told Fox31. However, the woman who filmed the video and posted it to Reddit said in a statement to Fox 31 that it was clearly a case of racial profiling. “I see dozens of white teenagers taking pictures or Snapchats in that area all the time and it’s never been a problem until it’s a Black man," she said. "It’s never a problem when bloggers take photos of lovely yard decorations or any other nonsense along that line."
"He wasn’t doing anything suspicious at all, just walking around. He didn’t owe her or anyone else an explanation for walking in a public space, much less one that sees heavy foot traffic all day," she added. "This was racial profiling, simple and plain. Even in big liberal cities, racism is alive and active.”
Meanwhile, Margue says she stands by her actions. “I think with our situation with the police now—we have to back up each other in this neighborhood and we have to watch out what’s going on. And I would do it again," she told the outlet.