Juanillo was stencilling “Black Lives Matter” onto his Pacific Heights property with chalk when Alexander appeared. But as the country continues to reckon with its racist practises and history thanks to Black Lives Matter protesters, these situations now, if filmed, often become tinderbox moments. Often brief, these encounters are all too common in an America snarled by racism. A white busybody threatens to call the cops on a person of colour for just existing. “She didn’t know that calling the police would probably result in a whole lot of nothing.” ‘Karen’ criticised man for stencilling on his own home. “Lisa didn’t know that about me,” Juanillo said. Pointing to the chalk, the officer then cheerfully said: “Great stencilling work!” And the police officer goes: ‘Oh, hey, you live here!’ “And I’m like, I did that. I’m all proud of it and stuff. And I yell out to him, I’m like: ‘Are you responding to a Black Lives Matter call?’ “I recognise the police officer and he recognises me. “So the police come up the hill and they make a big show of pulling their patrol car into my driveway,” James Juanillo said.
