About

Permit Patty is a nickname given to Oakland, California woman Alison Ettel after she allegedly called the police on an eight-year-old black girl and her mother for selling water outside her apartment. After a video of the incident circulated online, Ettel was mocked in memes and her profession as the CEO of a medicinal marijuana company for animals was pointed at as illustrative of the difference between being white and black in America. The situation drew comparisons to BBQ Becky, another Oakland, California woman who several weeks prior had called the police because of a group of black people having a barbecue.

Origin

On June 23rd, 2018, Twitter user @_ethipoiangold, the 8-year old girl's cousin, tweeted a video of Ettel evidently on the phone with the police after calling them because the girl and her mother were selling water "without a permit." @_ethiopiangold used the hashtag "#PermitPatty" (shown below). The mother, who goes by @ladyesowavy on Instagram, also posted the video, and gained over 1.2 million views.^[1]

Spread

The Huffington Post^[2] interviewed Ettel later the day the video began going viral. Ettel claimed that the incident began because the girl and her mother were "screaming" about the water. She also claimed she was bluffing when she said she was going to call the police, but also said she was on the phone with her building's security team. She stated that the issue was not race-related and she regretted the way she handled the situation. "That was a mistake, a complete mistake. Please don’t make me sound horrible,” she told the Huffington Post.

911 Call

On June 28th, San Francisco's KTVU posted audio of the 911 call Ettel made that day, which she had claimed she was only pretending to make (shown below). The call abruptly ends after the operator attempts to transfer her to the police, though it unclear if they or Ettel hung up the phone. The update was covered by Daily Dot^[4] and a thread about the news on /r/funny^[5] gained over 2,300 points.

Online Reaction

Twitter users reacted with outrage at the video. Actress Gabrielle Union tweeted about the video, gaining over 3,400 retweets and 11,000 likes (shown below, left). User @LeftSentThis pointed out that it was an example of how white people used their proximity to police protection as a "weapon" against people of color, gaining over 2,900 retweets and 7,500 likes (shown below, right).

It later came to light that Ettel was the CEO of a medicinal marijuana dispensary for dogs and their owners.^[3] Twitter users pointed out the social inequity that led a white woman who sells marijuana to call the police on a black girl selling water. Shaun King pointed out the hypocrisy, gaining over 9,600 retweets and 19,000 likes (shown below, left). User @mother_pug showed screenshots of emails from several dispensaries in the area cutting ties with Ettel (shown below, right).

Twitter user @_ethiopiangold quickly drew the comparison between Ettel and "BBQ Becky" in a tweet that gained over 17,000 retweets and 72,000 likes (shown below).

This, along with Ettel's profession led to the creation of several memes, regarding the incident (examples shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References