A San Francisco man said a white couple called the cops on him after they questioned him over stenciling the words "Black Lives Matter" on his own wall.
Per ABC7, James Juanillo identifies as a person of color, and to show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, he made the decision to stencil the words in chalk onto his own property.
However, in a video uploaded to social media by Juanillo on Friday, a white couple approached him as he was marking his property and repeatedly asked if he lived in building.
You can see the abrasive interaction in the video below:In the footage, the couple - who give their names as Lisa and Robert - say that they are asking because they know that Juanillo does not live in the property and therefore has no legal right to write the message on the wall.
However, this was not true and Juanillo does indeed live in the property.
After a tense stand-off, the couple then tells Juanillo that they were going to be calling the police.
Writing alongside the video on Twitter, Juanillo said: "A white couple call the police on me, a person of color, for stencilling a #BLM chalk message on my own front retaining wall. 'Karen' lies and says she knows that I don’t live in my own house, because she knows the person who lives here. #blacklivesmatter".
(According to Dictionary.com, 'Karen' is a "mocking slang term for an entitled, obnoxious, middle-aged white woman.")
Speaking to ABC7, Juanillo told the station: "She thought this was devaluing someone's property. She knew it was chalk, she knew this would wash away in the rain. That leaves only the message to be problematic."
Juanillo then explained what happened when officers did arrive at his property:
"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."
One of the owners of the property, Brad Gilbertson, told the news station that he does not know the couple in the video.
Gilbertson said: "She just claimed she knew the owner of the house. She doesn't know me. I thought she was out of line."
Despite only giving her first name, several social media users have said that the woman in the video is Lisa Alexander, the CEO of LAFACE Skincare (although, this has not been officially or independently revealed).
Despite this, beauty company Birchbox has announced in a Twitter statement that they will "officially cut ties" with LAFACE following "the CEO's actions".
They wrote to their 168,000+ Twitter followers: "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."
In an interview with NBC Bay Area, Juanillo shared what the video does not show, telling the new outlet:
"What the video on Twitter doesn't show is the 95% of residents and neighbors who while I was putting this up gave me a fist, or made eye contact and smile, or just flat out said thank you."
He added that he believes he was approached because he is a person of color, and the couple suspected him of tagging on someone else's property. In response to this, Juanillo says:
"Makes me feel like we all need to fight. When you see racism...speak your truth. Don't let it go, it's time."