A man delivering drug overdose prevention medication in San Francisco filmed his heated encounter with a white resident who reportedly accosted him, a confrontation he described as a "common occurrence" for a person of color venturing in the wealthy Pacific Heights neighborhood.
The video recalls multiple incidents that saw white people go viral for harassing people of color in public spaces. A prominent recent example is Amy Cooper, the white woman who was filmed calling the police to falsely report that a Black bird watcher had threatened her in New York City's Central Park.
In the description of his video posted to Instagram on Wednesday, the delivery man said he was delivering Narcan—which is used to prevent opioid overdoses—when the white man called out to him from a residence's third story window. After the deliveryman would not answer the resident's questions, the white man reportedly followed him and obstructed his path as he tried to complete a delivery at a halfway house.
"I've never seen this guy before in my life," the description read. "I posed no threat to his safety or his property."
The deliveryman's Instagram profile doesn't include his name, as he goes by Lost Soul Courier Collective, which appears to be the name of his service.
In the video, the deliveryman can first be heard telling the white man to "please get out of my face" and "put your mask on." After complying, the resident retorts: "I'm outside, I don't need a mask."
The white man, who appears to also be filming on his phone, began interrogating the deliveryman on his identification and affiliation, which the aggravated courier refuses to answer.
"Every time I come around here, motherf***ers like you make my job harder," the deliveryman said.
The cycling courier then began demanding identifying information from the white man, who at one point can be seen filming on his phone, his hands shaking.
"You did this," the deliveryman said. "Don't start shaking and crying. What's your name?"
The white man answered "John," but refused to disclose his last name and eventually began walking away. At one point, he inaudibly appears to mention alerting the police, as the incensed deliveryman calls out: "Good, go f***ing look for a police officer you pile of s***. Don't think I don't know why you came over here and stopped me. Cause you think I belong in another neighborhood, right?"
"You are why people get killed and end up on the f***ing news you pile of s***," he continued. "You're the f***ing reason why."
As the deliveryman filmed a building purported to be the white man's home, the latter reappeared and said he had called the police. The courier then referred to San Francisco's CAREN Act, which outlaws racially biased 911 calls.
In the ensuing back-and-forth, the white man threatens to call the police as the deliveryman invites him to do so.
"You should call them," he said. "For what? Tell me what you're calling them for."
"Cause you're harassing me," the white man responded.
"Oh, now it's harassment," the exasperated deliveryman said. "Before, it was because I was walking down the street. Now I'm harassing you?"
He continued: "I was across the street, you called out to me. I didn't come over here looking for you."
The white man said: "Don't harass me, okay?"
The deliveryman urged him to call the cops again, saying "This is why people f***ing die."
"Motherf***ers that look like me die because of motherf***ers that look like you," he said. "Have you not opened up a f***ing newspaper? Can you not look around and see what the f*** is going on because of this bulls*** right here?"
The white man later told the deliveryman he will call the police if "you don't stop threatening me." The deliveryman responded: "Threatening you with what? With words of truth? Does the truth get on your f***ing nerves?"
Later in the video, the deliveryman said: "You scared you're gonna lose your job now or your f***ing billion dollar funding?"
"You're living up in your f***ing mansion bothering me, I'm a hardworking man, what the f*** do you do for a living?" he said. "You sit on your ass and type behind a computer, huh?"
The white man can be heard talking about having "ordered something," to which the deliveryman responds: "Oh now it's because you ordered something. A second ago, it was because I might be a porch pirate."
The white man later admitted he had not called the police and did not intend to.
Clearly angry from the exchange, the cyclist yells out: "I'm not here to steal shit, you f***ing rich assholes." In the video's description, he called Pacific Heights "one of the most affluent, snobby, and white neighborhoods in San Francisco."
Newsweek has contacted the deliveryman for comment.
