#JoggerJoe, an unidentified Oakland white man, grabbed a Black homeless man’s belongings and threw them in the lake and the trash, despite park goers’ attempts to stop him. The Black homeless man, identified as Drew and described as peaceful and always smiling, lived at Lake Merritt, the Bay Area park. Yes, that is the same park where racist BBQ Becky called the police on Blacks barbecuing.
The jogger is seen referring to Drew’s things as “trash” and kicking and tossing the items around. When someone asks him why he threw the stuff into the lake, he responds: “That was an accident.”
No official reports have been made yet about the identity of #JoggerJoe, but he was outed by Twitter and social media as alt-right Trump fan Henry William Sintay.
Below is the video of the incident:
Some entitled white douchebag decided to wreck and throw away part of a homeless guy’s long-term sleeping area at the top of Lake Merritt. If you see him, report him to the cops/punch him in the throat. Please share so we can find this guy and hold him accountable.
Also, if you want to take real action on the housing crisis: (as posted by a fellow neighbor) The next step, as I continue to post is that Tuesday (unless cancelled by the parade) the city council is considering a resolution by Kaplan on how to use its public land. PLEASE EMAIL THE CITY COUNCIL NOW (or call them). 1) Support the Homeless Advocacy Working Group request for $4 million in the midyear budget adjustment, to expand sanitation, shelter, and services. 2) Support Kaplan’s proposal for a moratorium on sale of public land until they agree on a policy including using it for housing. PLEASE EMAIL NOW. Show up on Tuesday in support if you can.”
Posted by Kristin Gallup on Friday, June 8, 2018
While a Lake Neighbors group suggested calling the police on #JoggerJoe for theft, destruction of property and littering in the lake, some neighbors sided with the jogger on Facebook. One neighbor: “If I see him I will thank him for helping clean up the trash these homeless are leaving behind.”
Racism in the Oakland area is not uncommon, according to former police dispatcher Rachel Herron, who took calls “every single day of her career” from white residents harassing Blacks that were doing nothing. She was a dispatcher for 17 years in the Bay Area.
She wrote in a
recent column, after looking at the call records for the BBQ Becky incident, that she suspected the dispatcher was annoyed over another white person upset about what Black people were doing. She said the dispatcher gave the call a code for police that meant it was not important.
Kristin Gallup, an Oakland resident who posted the video on the Lake Neighbors page, urged people to make a difference in the lives of homeless people by attending a city council meeting that could help fund an advocacy group to expand shelters and services. She went on to tell SFGate:
“This whole incident is a pretty succinct manifestation of so many of Oakland’s current issues racism, gentrification, white privilege, male privilege, hatred towards poor and homeless people, lack of resources due to funds not being allocated properly, lack of consequences for unjustifiably bullying of homeless people, and sheer apathy towards their predicaments.”
