A video posted to social media shows a San Diego homeowner calling the police to report an event to feed the homeless that took place in front of her house.
Shirley Raines posted a video of the encounter on her X and TikTok accounts. The video begins with a short clip of a heated discussion she had with a redheaded white woman before it cuts to a view of the woman on her phone. Viewers can hear Raines protesting the woman’s behavior in the background.
“Girl, why you don’t want them people to eat? Why you so miserable?” Raines asked the woman.
The video cuts to Raines’ subsequent conversation with two officers who say they were called to the scene by the resident.
Raines said that the woman approached her about the community event, which was set up on a public street. But when Raines asked her to wait a moment while she attended to her volunteers, the woman proceeded to call the cops.
“That’s her whole problem. She wanna control the narrative,” Raines said of the 911 caller to the cops. “We could have had a conversation had you stepped to the side and waited a moment like I asked you to. But now, there’s no conversation to be had. She’s disrespectful.”
The exchange seen on the video between both cops and Raines was brief but courteous. They complimented Raines on her event operations and said they would speak to the woman.
“As far as I’m concerned, you have just as much right as anyone else to be here,” one officer told Raines.
“We’re gonna leave. You guys keep doing whatever you’re doing,” another cop said.
The video ends with Raines giving both officers ice cream from the event and ending the conversation on a humorous note, joking and laughing with the officers.
Raines leads a nonprofit called Beauty 2 The Streetz, which provides essential services to underserved communities on the West Coast. Her organization regularly hosts events to feed unsheltered individuals in San Diego and offers hair, beauty, and hygiene services to people in need. Several videos she’s posted of her services have gone viral and drawn the attention and praise of many people online. She’s amassed 5.5 million followers on TikTok who follow her grassroots work.
This isn’t the first time Raines has encountered privileged behavior while conducting her work for the community.
Last June, a homeless white man threatened to call the police after he noticed he was the only white person at one of Raines’ food pantry events. As the man walked away from the event site to call the cops, Raines scolded him.
“You are responsible for you. You being the only white person in that line. We have lived that plight all our life … being the only Black person in the space not feeling protected and safe,” Raines told the man. “Do not come up here bullying us… and the fact that you would pick up that phone and call the police because you think you’re not being served properly and f**k it up for the rest of the people in the heat, I find it, quite frankly, selfish and rude,” she added.
Raines has served thousands in Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, and Las Vegas since starting her nonprofit in 2017. She said her mission derived from her past experience of being unhoused and the death of her 2-year-old son. She launched a GoFundMe to raise $150,000 to expand her mobile food and beauty services.
Learn more about Beauty 2 the Streetz here.
