A racial profiling incident: Edgewater Isle resident “Karen” called the police on a neighbor for hosing down the sidewalk.
Records to the San Mateo Police Department show that on May 24, 2020, a resident at Edgewater Isle called the San Mateo Police over a "suspicious person" allegedly trying to poison geese at the pond. Here is what police records show regarding the call:
And a description of the call was posted on edgewaterisle.com as follows:
Suspicious person reported by pond
May 29, 2020
A resident called the San Mateo Police on May 24 at 3:51 p.m. to report a suspicious person, a woman, by the pond on Vista Del Mar and Marina Vista, spraying what the resident thought was poison, and was trying to kill the geese. Reporting party took a picture of the suspicious woman who was gone upon police arrival.
Suspicious person responds
On July 11, 2020, the "suspicious person" sent this email to us. The "suspicious person" is Lea, a resident at Edgewater Isle, and she has some serious things to say about neighbors who call the police on other neighbors. Lea was cleaning up her sidewalk but a resident at Edgewater Isle called the police and said she was "spraying poison."
Subject: "Suspicious person" (aka racial profiling) reported by pond
From: xxxxx xxxxx@gmail.com
Date: Sat, July 11, 2020 4:07 am
To: xxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.com
This report below is a prime example of the ongoing issue of racial profiling while living at Edgewater Isle - SMH.
First off I live here - I am not "suspicious". My name is Lea.
Secondly, I am not "spraying poison" - it is water. I am not trying to "kill" any bird nor animal, and this fine display of Hoover-catrophising [sic] is exactly how being criminalized while Black occurs (thank you for giving me another example to tuck away as one of many incidents since the shutdown started, which I will continue to compile as one nice racially motivated harassment file).
What I am doing - which I would've gladly told anyone had they bothered to treat me like a human being and ask instead of racially profile and criminalize me - is adhering to the US Humane Society and US Fish and Wildlife's protocol for managing an overpopulation issue with Canada Geese.
Had you and your fellow residents who are scared of Black people bothered to also read and actually learn about Canada Geese, and how they are negatively impacting the ecology of our community (of which San Mateo City Council is aware and looking into solutions), you would have learned that it's actually strongly encouraged to *scare* (NOT harm or "try to kill"!) the geese away so that they do not get comfortable in areas like the front of my house. For when they do, they will no longer migrate and remain all year around.
A few years ago there were only 10-15 geese tops around my home. This year there's between 27 - 40 trying to crowd into southern areas of the complex weekly. Usually after a good 3 weeks of not being able to settle in, a goose clan will fly away for good to another area that's easier to graze and remain. These geese poop every 12 minutes, and each adult poops up to 2 pounds of feces a day - the growing fledglings poop up to 1 pound of feces per day. People's dogs don't even poop that much.
Likewise, my motivation to start scaring them off stemmed from elders and children getting hissed at by these geese last Fall; canes and walkers of elders covered in goose poop; elders and neighbors complaining about the geese being a nuisance that completely destroys our grass areas - disallowing children and babies to play on the grass, and keeps many residents from being able to walk their dogs down certain paths because of all the feces droppings.
Per it being clear that the above ongoing resident complaints stay being ignored by the board, let's move on to Edgewater Isle's continued deflection with the myth that geese feces are "harmless." Perhaps a new hobby beyond cowardly policing what few Black people live here (it's clear y'all don't want many to reside here), would be to study the toxicology issues connected to Canada Geese feces, while noting that Canada Geese molting season starts at the end of July into August. Once they molt, they cannot fly anywhere and will remain where they are into late Fall.
It only takes 1 goose on a 1-acre pond to imbalance the pond's ecology, which reflects why it's pretty easy to find case precedents and research reflecting how geese contribute to water toxicology issues. E. coli, Salmonella, Campylobacter, fungal spores causing Histoplasmosis, Coccidiosis in dogs from eating geese feces, and Giardia have all been documented to occur in response to exposure to high amounts of geese feces - which you'll get if you multiply 2 lbs of feces by 27 geese a day. And if we all continue to play the game that there's no issue here at all but the "suspicious" "criminal" Black lady writing this, then next year they'll be double the amount of geese around here to be dealt with. *The algae bloom issues in the lagoon are also in part connected to an ongoing increase in geese feces.
So until Edgewater Isle decides to start cleaning sidewalks by the pond and in front of my house weekly in response to the geese, like many of our neighboring complexes do, I'll continue to abide by the US Humane Society and US Fish and Wildlife's protocol, simply because no one deserves to be surrounded by goose crap while on a statewide shutdown, so children have grass to play on, and elders have clean sidewalks to walk on - just like in 2020 no one deserves to be racially profiled while walking in her own neighborhood deterring the geese from making the south area their permanent home.
I remember how petty the folks who live here have always been when my own Mother served as a member of the board. She would suck it up and come home crying after board meetings. I assure you I am not my Mother, and if anyone has any additional racially driven accusations you or they'd like to direct towards me, I can be reached directly at xxx-xxx-xxxx. Please note everything is being documented and recorded.
*And please do continue to call the police in response to Black fear - many departments are finally doing something about this type of racial hate/harassment and fining the Karens and Chads calling 911.
Pathetic.
Photo courtesy of Scott DuBose. Used with permission.
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