Permit Patty’s insistence that her phone call to the police for a Black girl selling water bottles was the latest round of fake news.
KTVU obtained audio of a phone call to 911 made by the woman, whose real name is Alison Ettel.
“I have someone who does not have a vendor permit that’s selling water across from the ballpark,” Ettel says. She asks for “someone I can talk to about that.
That “someone” was an 8-year-old Black girl, Jordan Rodgers, who was trying to raise money to help her and her mother.
The operator asks Ettel to hold while her call is transferred.
“Great, thank you,” Ettel cheerily responds.
While she holds, the call cuts out. Whether Ettel hung up or was cut off by mistake is unclear.
Company defends Permit Patty all the way til the end, calling her outburst “an escalated moment.” Alison Ettel’s career up in smoke.
According to KTVU, San Francisco Police Dispatch categorized the call as a report of a “suspicious person.”
Jordan’s mother, later identified as Erin Austin, posted a video of her exchange with Ettel that gained attention on social media. Ettel later told the SG Gate that she had grown frustrated because Austin and her daughter were being loud for hours. She claimed she first went to get a building security guard but then got into the altercation with Austin. She then faked the call to 911.
After calling 911 on a little girl raising money for her mother who recently lost her job and lying about it Ettel alleged she was the victim. She told HuffPost she is being discriminated against and started receiving threats online.
“It was stupid,” she told the outlet. “I completely regret that I handled that so poorly. It was completely stress-related, and I should have never confronted her. That was a mistake, a complete mistake. Please don’t make me sound horrible.”
Ettel’s lies and racism seem to do a fine job of that on their own.
Good news: while Permit Patty plays the victim, young entrepreneur Jordan Rodgers is going to Disneyland.
Even though she initially claimed the phone call was fake, the consequences were real. Following the backlash, Ettel stepped down from her role as CEO of TreatWell Tinctures, a marijuana company, after numerous dispensaries said they would not carry her products because of the viral video.
