The holiday spirit was in short supply at a community swimming pool in North Carolina on July 4, where a black woman claims she was racially profiled by a neighbor who called the police after she questioned his request for ID.
Jasmine Edwards filmed the bizarre incident at a private pool in Winston-Salem. She says she was reported to the police by a neighbor despite owning an access card for the private leisure area.
“This is a classic case of racial profiling in my half a million neighborhood pool,” Edwards posted on Facebook. “This happened to me and my baby… what a shame.”
In the footage, Edwards can be heard explaining to two Winston-Salem police officers how she was the only person that was asked for her address and ID by the chair of her homeowners’ association, identified as Adam Bloom. The debacle unfolded on July 4, as people across the US were celebrating Independence Day.
“I feel this is racial profiling. I am the only black person in the pool with my son,” Edwards can be heard to say. In the clip, Bloom says he asks residents for ID at the pool “a couple of times a week.”
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Bloom also demanded that the police validate Edwards’ fully functioning pool card.
The video has been viewed more than 125,000 times online. Bloom has since resigned from his position in the homeowners’ association. He has also been fired from his job at the packaging company Sonoco.
“We are aware of a terrible incident involving the actions of one of our employees outside of the workplace. The well-documented incident, which involves activities at a neighborhood pool, does not reflect the core values of our company, and the employee is no longer employed by the company in any respect,” Sonoco said in a statement.
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