White Woman Dubbed ‘Golfcart Gail’ Calls Police On Black Father Cheering On His Son At Youth Soccer Game
A viral video from Florida shows a woman calling police on a black man at his son’s soccer game, claiming that he was yelling at a referee when other witnesses say he was just cheering on his son.
The incident has gained viral interest and led to people dubbing the woman “Golfcart Gail” as she was sitting on a golf cart and appearing to prevent the man and his family from leaving after the youth soccer match. According to a report from First Coast News, a fellow parent named Gail Williams captured the event on video under the heading “SOCCER WHILE BLACK” and explained that the man had done nothing wrong.
Tempers reportedly flared during the match after some grew angry at a call made by the referee, but witnesses said the black man targeted by “Golfcart Gail” had nothing to do with it and was only speaking to his son about the need to respect the referee as well as encouraging him to keep playing and forget about it.
“[She] decided to spring into action and rapidly approach this parent and remind him that harassment would not be tolerated. He informed her that he was only speaking to his son,” Williams wrote in her post.
But the woman, who was identified as the game’s field marshal, believed he was harassing the referee and said she was calling the police. The black father offered to leave with this family and diffuse the scene, but the woman prevented them from leaving.
The video of “Golfcart Gail” joins a growing series of other incidents in which white people call police on black people who have done nothing wrong. There was “BBQ Becky” earlier in the year, a woman who called police on a black family for having a cookout in the park. Then came “Permit Patty,” who called police on an 8-year-old black girl for selling water without a permit.
Last week was an incident featuring a woman dubbed “Cornerstore Caroline” who called police claiming that a 9-year-old black boy had groped her in a Brooklyn shop. Video showed her yelling at the boy’s mother and calling police as a crowd gathered, but footage from inside the store told a very different story — the boy had never touched her, but his bookbag grazed her body as he walked by with his mother.
As NBC New York noted, the incident sparked a major backlash and supporters even held a rally where the boy spoke about the trauma he suffered from the incident.
'Golfcart Gail' calls St. Johns County deputies out for man coaching his son in soccer https://t.co/JMkWhv2Hmp pic.twitter.com/zWPPOnngTM
— First Coast News (@FCN2go) October 16, 2018
Police in Florida spoke to the black father who was cheering on his son and allowed the family to leave. It is not clear if anything happened to “Golfcart Gail” after her call to 911.
