‘UNFAIRLY TARGETED’

YouTube Employee Apologizes for Calling 911 on Black Man in His Building

Christopher Cukor says he never wanted to echo “terrible pattern of people calling the authorities regarding people of color for no other reason than their race.”

A YouTube employee who was seen in a viral video calling the cops on a black man waiting inside his building on the Fourth of July has penned an apology on Medium. The video, which has been viewed millions of times, shows Christopher Cukor asking the man to step out of the San Francisco building where he lived or to call the person who invited him there. After the man, Wesly Michel, refused, Cukor called the police, despite his son asking him to walk away from the incident.

In the Medium post, Cukor said he called the police because of a tragic family history—his father was murdered in 2012 after confronting a man outside his home in Berkeley, California. “For my child’s safety, my safety and that of the building, I felt it was necessary to get help in this situation,” Cukor wrote. “Furthermore, I’ve encountered trespassers in my building and we’ve been robbed several times.” He went on to say the last thing he intended to do was echo the “terrible pattern of people calling the authorities regarding people of color for no other reason than their race” and apologized to Michel for making him feel “unfairly targeted due to his race.”