A North Carolina woman is without a job and reportedly without a place to live after viral video of her racially harassing two Black women waiting for roadside assistance outside an apartment complex in south Charlotte.
The clip, uploaded to social media on Friday, shows former Spectrum Enterprise employee Susan J. Westwood demanding to know where the two women lived and how much they pay in rent as they waited for AAA in the parking lot of the Camden Fairview Apartments in SouthPark on Oct. 19.
At one point, Susan Westwood threatens the women and asks, “Do I need to bring out my concealed weapons?”
“I wanna make sure there’s nothing going on,” Westwood says. “Whats going on here, babe? What’s going on in this parking lot that you feel you need to congregate?”
At one point, Westwood gets in the women’s faces and shoves her phone in the camera, later adding, “Is your boyfriend here? Is your baby daddy here? Nobody cares, I’m white and I’m hot … You’re hanging around in a place you don’t belong.”
Chele Garris, one of the women being accosted, is heard in the video asking Westwood to leave them alone and go home, but Westwood refuses and continues to rant that, “I’m white … and I make $125,000 a year, and I want to make sure that you’re all up in here.” That’s when Garris’ sister dials 911 to report the harassment.
“Do I need to bring out my concealed weapon, too?,” Westwood shouts at the women. “This is North Carolina, by the way.”
Video from the incident had been viewed more than 1 million times on various social media sites by Saturday, sparking outrage and demands for Westwood to be punished. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police did just that and charged the woman with two counts of communicating threats and two counts of simple assault, the Charlotte Observer reported. A spokesperson for the department said “four criminal summons” have been issued but not yet served, however.
Westwood, who’s since been dubbed “Parking Lot Patty,” also lost her job as a result of the incident. In a statement to local station WSOC-TV, Spectrum Enterprises (which is a part of Charter Communications) confirmed her termination.
“The incident recorded in Charlotte is a blatant violation of Charter’s code of conduct and clearly disregards the company’s commitment to inclusion and respectful behavior,” the company wrote. “As such, Ms. Westwood’s employment with the company has been terminated, effective immediately.”
It’s also been rumored that Camden Fairview evicted Westwood from her apartment, but the company has yet to confirm that claim.
Recalling the incident, Garris and her sister described the ordeal as a “racially motivated attack.”
“We are so distraught and still very upset about what has taken place only because of the color of our skin,” the women told FOX 8 News. “It is so upsetting to know that today we still have this overt racism going on in 2018.”
Watch more in the videos below.
https://www.facebook.com/mary.garris.94/posts/995509843955261
