#IDAdam loses job after calling cops on black family using neighbourhood pool

A white man in North Carolina, US, has been fired from his job after a video of him calling cops on a black family using a neighbourhood pool goes viral. Dubbed on social media as #IDAdam, Adam Bloom is seen in the footage demanding to see the ID of a black woman who wished to use the swimming pool with her kids on July 4.

According to Jasmine Edwards Abhulimen, she was enjoying the neighbourhood pool with her family when Bloom asked for her address and an ID to prove she was a resident of Glenridge community. Abhulimen provided her address but refused to show her ID as there was no rule that she must do so. When she refused, Bloom, a member of the homeowners’ association and the pool chairman, called the cops.

Abhulimen started recording their interaction when the cops were already there. She explained to them that there was no rule that she had to show her ID before she could enter the pool area. She had already provided her address and so there was no need for an identification. She also had a key card that opens the gate to the pool, proving that she was allowed there.

When the cops asked if she would want to show her ID to them, she agreed, saying she was okay showing it to them but not to him. “Nobody else was asked to see their ID,” she told them.

Perhaps to placate Bloom, the officers used her key card to open the gate to the pool. And when it did, they told Bloom that it proved that Abhulimen had every right to be there as well.

“If she has a card to get into the pool, I believe that should be enough,” one of the officers told Bloom.

“They kind of make their way around sometimes,” an unapologetic Bloom replied. “But that’s good enough for me today.”

Abhulimen asked if Bloom wanted to apologise for singling her out, but Bloom ignored her. She said that it was a classic case of racial profiling as she and her kids were the only black people there.

Reactions

Since Abhulimen has posted the video on her Facebook, social media commenters have criticised Bloom’s action. They called on Sonoco Products, the company Bloom had been employed in for five years, to fire him, claiming that it was an obvious racism on his part.

People has started to call him ID Adam on Twitter. They said his behaviour was reminiscent of the recent incidents where white people had called cops on black people for doing mundane stuff, such as Jennifer Schulte, dubbed BBQ Becky, who called 911 on a group of black men cooking barbecue in California; Alison Ettel, given the nickname Permit Patty, who called cops on an 8-year-old black girl selling water; and Stephanie Sebby-Strempel, called Pool Patrol Paula, who allegedly assaulted a black teenager and demanded he and his friends leave the community swimming pool.

#IDAdam dismissed from job

Sonoco has since responded on Twitter, saying it has dismissed Bloom. It has also apologised to Abhulimen and her family for the treatment of its employee.

“We are aware of the terrible incident involving the actions of one of our employees outside of the workplace. The well-documented incident, which involves activities at a neighbourhood pool over the 4^th of July, does not reflect the core values of our Company, and the employee involved is no longer employed by the Company in any respect,” the statement partly reads.

The homeowners association has also released a statement (via Huffington Post) apologising to Abhulimen and vowing to redouble its efforts to “make sure no resident feels singled out again.” It said it accepted Bloom’s resignation as pool chair and board member effective immediately.

Bloom’s response

In an explanation of what had happened, Bloom’s lawyer told WXII12 that it was all a misunderstanding and not in any way racially motivated. John Vermitsky said his client’s role as pool chair included asking for IDs of pool patrons and removing those who did not have valid memberships. Those who have been removed in the past, the lawyer said, included people of all ages and races.

Vermitsky explained that another board member approached Bloom with concerns that Abhulimen did not live in the neighbourhood because when she asked Abhulimen her address, Abhulimen allegedly gave her an address that was on a road in the neighbourhood where houses were not yet built.

“This could have been a misunderstanding on the woman’s part. Nonetheless, it was relayed to Mr Bloom. The woman then asked Mr Bloom to verify Ms Edwards’ address and her pool membership. Normally, the pool would have had a sign-in sheet, where pool members list their name and address and which Mr Bloom could have referenced; unfortunately, the sign-in sheet was not set out that day,” Bloom’s attorney wrote in a letter.

He added that Bloom wanted Abhulimen to “feel welcome at the pool and is deeply regretful if his enforcement of the rules appeared to be racially motivated.” The attorney said his client has received multiple death threats and has had to move his family out of the neighbourhood.

Abhulimen’s lawyer, on the other hand, told WXII12 that the incident was “traumatising” to her family. They would want to work with the Glenridge Home Owners Association to reach a constructive solution that would ensure such incident would not happen in the future.