Liz de la Torres Kaiser Permanente worker aka Walmart Karen falsely accused black man, Ja’Shear Bryant of stealing her son’s phone. Drama caught on video.
A California black man has posted video of interaction he had with a ‘white woman’ of Hispanic heritage at a Moreno Valley Walmart outlet earlier this week in which he claims the woman ‘falsely’ accused him of stealing her son’s cellphone.
Footage from July 12, shows a visibly upset woman, since identified as Liz Elizabeth De La Torres Rodriguez or Liz de la Torres and dubbed Walmart Karen along with Mexican Karen by social media, standing in the parking lot with her cellphone to her ear. While the beginning of the man’s exchange with the woman was not captured on video, Ja’Shear Bryant claims the woman at some point began falsely accusing him of stealing her young child’s phone.
Bryant says the woman was eyeing him in the store at around the time her child’s phone had seemingly gone missing.
‘I know I’m Black with tattoos, so she automatically assumes I have it,’ Bryant says in the video (see below).
Bryant then says the woman tracked the phone and determined it was located in the parking lot next to his car. Bryant repeatedly assured her that he did not have the device.
Racial profiling in America
‘She runs up to me and says, ‘Excuse me, you have my son’s phone?’ I pull my phone out, and tell her I do not … The reason I’m not leaving is because I don’t have the phone. That’s why I’m not leaving.’
At some point, the woman begins following Bryant as he’s walking away, demanding he stay at their location until police arrive.
‘I’m definitely pressing charges,’ he says on video. ‘This is racial profiling. You guys see it on camera yourself.’
Video captures the woman complained to a store manager whilst Ja’Shear accuses ‘Karen’ – a pejorative term used to describe a white woman exacting her sense of privilege or superiority to others – of ‘racially profiling’ him.
‘I’m a married man,’ Bryant says in the video. ‘I’m dealing with this woman’s irateness because her son can’t be responsible for a phone. That’s not my fault. But being racially profiled? That’s gonna be hers.’
As the drama continues to unfold, the woman’s son walks into the frame with the missing phone in his hand. The look on the mother’s face betrays her acknowledging having incorrectly accused Bryant of having stolen her son’s phone.
‘Her son found it in the car,’ Bryant says in the video. ‘Now I’m gonna press charges. May I have your name ma’am, please?’
Will Karen be fired?
‘No. You go f**k yourself,’ the unrepentant woman replies before walking away.
The incident soon went viral on social media with commentators who had observed the woman wearing a Kaiser Permanente shirt reaching out to her employer, demanding that ‘Walmart Karen’ be fired.
The healthcare provider has since responded, releasing the following statement, ‘Thank you for sharing this. This video has been brought to our attention and we are actively investigating it. The conduct in this video does not in any way reflect the views or beliefs of Kaiser Permanente.’
Bryant told Cali.Fm he intends to file a police report against the woman and has already been contacted by a discrimination attorney.
