Bay Area community incensed over viral video of woman repeating racist slurs

Residents of Pinole, a small city in the San Francisco Bay Area, are up in arms after a video went viral showing a woman using racist slurs, which has also caught the attention of police and city leaders.

The viral video showed a woman in a blue car repeatedly saying the N-word to another woman. NBC Bay Area has decided to not air the audio due to the words’ repeated use.

“Folks from not even around Pinole and around the [Bay] area, but even Los Angeles got a hold of this video, and were asking me ‘was this your city’ and unfortunately the answer was ‘yes,’” said Pinole Mayor Cameron Sasai.

Sasai said this incident happened Sunday in downtown Pinole, in the parking lot outside the Pear Street Bistro. He said the person who filmed the video is a family member of the victim in the incident and reached out to him personally.

Sasai noted that this person is also in touch with the city and that the police department is investigating this as a “hate incident.” Additionally, Sasai said the case has been shared with the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s office for review.

The DA’s office did not immediately respond to NBC Bay Area’s request for comment on Wednesday.

“Regardless of the context, those words, those racial slurs, that racist, anti-Black rhetoric, is not acceptable,” Sasai said. He added that was “incredibly disturbed” to see the video.

Former prosecutor and legal analyst Steven Clark said what happened before and after the video occurred will be factored in as investigators determine whether a crime was committed.

“I think the big key here is you need to do an investigation as to the authenticity of this video and also what led up to this incident, because not every racial slur leads to a hate crime,” Clark said. “I think the District Attorney’s Office is going to look into this, to see whether not only this will be charged as a misdemeanor [for] disturbing the peace, but also whether there will be a hate crime enhancement to elevate the potential punishment available,” Clark continued.

NBC Bay Area has not confirmed the name of the woman shown in the video.

The license plate on the car shown in the video is registered to someone who also faces several charges this year for stealing from a cosmetics store.

Francisco Flores, the owner of the Pear Street Bistro, said the bartender who was working Sunday said they saw the woman in the video at the bar. He added that the woman was at the bar by herself, she ate food but didn’t drink any alcohol there.

According to the bartender, about 10 minutes after the woman left, police were seen coming to the parking lot behind the restaurant.

Flores said this all happened at brunch time on Sunday and that the staff had not seen that woman in their establishment before.

Flores said that the business does not support the behavior and language shown by the woman in the video. In fact, he has now instructed staff to be on the lookout for the woman in the video and not to allow her entry into the business.