A white woman who called the police after claiming that a young black boy touched her behind in a Brooklyn deli drew a storm of ridicule and criticism on social media, and late on Friday she made a public apology to the child.
Critics characterized the incident as the latest example of a hypersensitive white person calling the police to report black people for dubious reasons. Many detractors imputed racist motives to the woman, Teresa Klein.
She was quickly labeled “Cornerstore Caroline” by Jason Littlejohn, 37, a lifelong Flatbush resident who recorded the commotion on Wednesday outside of the Sahara Deli Market on Albemarle Road. Mr. Littlejohn’s Facebook recording of the incident had been viewed 4 million times by Friday evening.
“I was just sexually assaulted by a child,” Ms. Klein is heard saying on the video as she said she was on the phone with the police. The boy, who is about 9, and another child burst into tears outside the store as bystanders confronted Ms. Klein about the incident.
“The son grabbed my ass and she decided to yell at me,” Ms. Klein continued in the video, referring to his mother. The video was first reported by The New York Post.
The public shaming of people who behave boorishly or spout racist views has become a feature of modern life in New York City, where nearly every person has a cellphone and residents are not shy about confronting one another, often in colorful language.
Last year, a lawyer who threatened to call the immigration authorities on Spanish-speaking employees at a lunch counter made a public apology after a video of his rant was posted online and complaints were made to state court officials.
Ms. Klein, 53, returned to the store on Friday afternoon to buy cigarettes and to face her neighbors, who heckled her as she gave her version of events to journalists. Then, prompted by a reporter, Ms. Klein went inside the store and watched a playback of the bodega’s security camera footage from Wednesday evening.
Onlookers crammed inside the bodega’s doorway to watch the screening, their phone cameras pointed toward Ms. Klein. Playing on a ceiling-mounted flat-screen television, the video showed the child turning to someone behind him and his backpack brushing Ms. Klein’s backside as she leaned over the counter.
Speaking into a television reporter’s camera afterward, Ms. Klein made an apology. “Young man,” she said, “I don’t know your name but I’m sorry.”
Still, Ms. Klein denied she acted out of bigotry toward the boy or that she harbored racist feelings. She said she was willing to meet with the mother to talk out their differences, but complained that the mother had reacted aggressively when she said the boy had touched her.
“A woman charged at me and flashed a badge and said that she would arrest me,” she said, “and I called 911.”
For three days, Ms. Klein had been roundly criticized on Twitter. Many people took issue with the idea that a boy of his age would even understand what it meant to grope someone.
The outrage escalated after the surveillance video from the bodega was posted online, showing that the boy, dressed in a school uniform and carrying a large book bag, did not appear to touch Ms. Klein.
“The little kid thought he was going to go to jail for something he didn’t do,” Mr. Littlejohn said in an interview. “I thought it was someone calling police for unnecessary reasons, especially on a child.”
Nahounha Alexandre, 22, who works at a nearby Baptist church, said the apology was welcome but insufficient unless Ms. Klein also dropped her complaints about the mother’s behavior.
“She hurt all of us in this community because when you accuse that one little boy of doing something, you also accuse all of us,” Ms. Alexandre said.
The incident echoed other recent uproars on social media over white people calling the police to make a complaint about black people.
In Oakland, Calif., a white woman nicknamed “BBQ Becky” called the police about black people who she said were barbecuing in a restricted area in a park. Near Cleveland, a white family called the police after black children mowing a neighbor’s lawn accidentally mowed a portion of the family’s lawn.
And in Philadelphia, a Starbucks employee called the police after two black men asked to use the restroom without purchasing anything. More recently, the police were called on a black man near Atlanta who was babysitting two white children.
“You think something like this only happens in the South, but it’s all over the world,” said Mr. Littlejohn, who had tried to comfort the boy. “He’s going to be traumatized for the rest of his life. This is something that will stick with him.”