A North Carolina woman says she is the victim of racial profiling after she was allegedly singled out at her neighborhood swimming pool and asked to prove she belonged there – and she captured the incident on video.
The New York Post reports that Jasmine Edwards uploaded a video to her Facebook page of a 4th of July incident at her neighborhood pool that escalated to involve the police.
Edwards was reportedly at the pool with her young son when a man identified as Adam Bloom, reportedly the pool chairman and board member of the Glenridge Homeowners Association, asked for her address and ID in order to prove that she had a right to be at the pool, which she entered after using her key card for access.
“I feel this is racial profiling,” Edwards says in the video. “I am the only black person here with my son — and he walked all the way to me, to ask for my ID. He asked for my address. I give it to him, and then he came back and said, ‘Well, I didn’t catch your address correctly. Can you provide an ID to prove the address that you gave to me?’ And I said, ‘Why do I have to show my ID? Is there an ordinance in the neighborhood?’”
When Edwards declined to cooperate, Bloom reportedly called police. Responding officers appeared to side with Edwards, noting that there did not appear to be a rule requiring pool users to show ID. Police also had Edwards demonstrate that her key card worked at the entry gate.
Still, Bloom was skeptical.
“They kinda make their way around sometimes,” Bloom said to police. “But that’s good enough for me today.”
In the video, Edwards can be heard repeatedly asking Bloom to apologize, but he ignored the request.
The Winston-Salem Journal reports that Bloom resigned from his job at Sonoco on Thursday night. The packaging company released a lengthy statement about the incident, which read in part:
We are aware of a terrible incident involving the actions of one our employees outside of the workplace. The well-documented incident, which involves activities at a neighborhood pool over the 4th of July, does not reflect the core values of our Company, and the employee involved is no longer employed by the Company in any respect.
Bloom’s lawyer John Vermitsky told the New York Post that another pool member had approached him asking to verify that Edwards belonged there.
He had a pool member come to him and say ‘this person doesn’t appear to be a pool member’ and asked to check their credentials, as he’s required to do so,” Vermitsky said. “[Edwards] became loud and confrontational, and he wanted to make sure that the situation was handled properly.”
“This poor guy is being crucified…for doing something he was appointed to do,” the lawyer said, adding that his client has gotten death threats.
Bloom has also resigned from the homeowner’s board.