As I noted yesterday, Becky With the Bold Hands went through the entire gamut of aggrieved white weaponry when she was detained by police officers for attempting to pet a black woman’s dog without permission. Tears, kicks, threats, panic attacks smoothly transitioning into lucid vulgarities—it was like watching Beatrix Kiddo at the House of Blue Leaves.
Yet even after accounting for schadenfreude, I concede that it might have been excessive for a person to be detained by the cops for the crime of petting a dog. I assumed, however, that there was more to this story; there tends to be, in the rare instances of the police giving a black woman the benefit of the doubt instead of a white woman. And after speaking yesterday to the woman whose dog was harassed ... yeah, there’s more to this story.
The video was shot by “Ayanna,” a 27-year-old who lives in the Washington, D.C., area and is already wary about providing more biographical info because of some of the hateful messages she’s received since her video went viral, including one she shared with me through a Twitter direct message:
When I asked if she wished to provide more context for the video, she said the following:
I was going to a bar in Adams Morgan to pick my boyfriend up from work. I do this often and I always bring my dog. She’s not the first white person to try to do this. Most people walk away when they get denied though. She reached her hand into my car, reaching over my boyfriend who was trying to block access. I rolled the window up. She’s still at my car trying to tell me to let her interact with my dog. She said, and I quote, “I have a connection with the animal!” I got out of my car and told her to keep it moving. She refused, getting more belligerent and irate. She then says you wanna fight and throws her bag at my car. At this point the police intervene because they’ve been observing from across the street the whole time. There’s usually police posted up in this area so she really should have known better. They were just going to detain her but her own actions got her hemmed up.
In summary:
- The dog was in a car, not just walking on the street.
- Bold Becky reached into Ayanna’s car AND over another human sitting there.
- After the window was rolled up, Becky persisted.
- She said, “I have a connection with the animal”—which is the single whitest thing these ears have ever heard.
- When told again to leave, she challenged Ayanna to fight and threw her bag at Ayanna’s car.
- She was bold enough to do this in front of the police, who were watching from across the street.
- This has happened to Ayanna before, with other white people.
Ayanna’s dog couldn’t be reached for comment.