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A white manager from an apartment complex in Memphis was fired after calling the police on a black man wearing socks in the pool on July 4th.
The man, Kevin Yates, and his girlfriend, Camry Porter, said they had taken Ms. Porter's two young godchildren swimming at the Riverset Flats pool, where Ms. Porter lives. They said that they were the only blacks at the pool
. Yates, 25, watched the kids play in the pool, sitting at the edge of their feet soaked in the water, when a woman who identified herself as a property manager asked her to d & # 39; take off her socks because they were not "dressed properly in the pool," the couple said. When he did not take off his socks or leave the property, they said that she called the police
. Porter, 25, posted an account of the incident on Facebook, as well as a video of his conversation with a police officer.
In an interview Sunday, she said that she felt racially focused by the manager, whom she identified as Erica Walker. She said that whites wore clothes other than swimwear, such as hats or shirts, in the pool.
"That's not the problem with socks," Ms. Porter said. "If the socks were not to be worn, that was fine."
Riverset Apartments and its Trilogy Residential Management property management company, based in Chicago, did not respond to requests for comments on Sunday , but issued statements condemning discrimination.
Walker was fired immediately after we completed our investigation, " a statement said, adding that" she will never be employed by Trilogy Residential Management, LLC or one of its properties in the future. "
Ms. Walker, hit by a text message Sunday, declined to comment
Several white people have suffered consequences after calling police on black people, or threatening to do so, at swimming pools this summer.
On July 4, Mr. Yates said, he walked from the apartment to the pool wearing socks and flip-flops. He said that he left his socks as he handed to Ms. Porter's godchildren.
"I'm going to be in and out of the pool with the little kids and I do not want my feet to burn on this floor," he recalls.
A woman in a swimsuit asked her to take off her socks, and then came back as the property manager, he said. Porter said she had asked for a piece of ID to show that Ms. Walker was working at the compound, but that Ms. Walker would not provide it. She said that Mrs. Walker had asked them to leave and called the police when they refused.
Porter and Mr. Yates commended the officer for handling the situation professionally; The video shows that he is trying to defuse the tension.
During a conversation with the officer, the couple said that Mrs. Walker had offered to allow them to go to another pool complex
. : This is not the socks, that's me, "said Mr. Yates.
The couple brought the kids back to the apartment, and Ms. Porter posted on the showdown on Facebook The next day, she says, the management company contacted her and offered her three months of free rent.
She later learned that Mrs. Walker had been fired
"We all bills, "said Porter," I will not encourage and organize a party where Mrs. Erica was fired. "But, she added," there should have been consequences. "
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