So, last weekend, Dr. Covey Banks, a black physician, and her family were enjoying the pool at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate when they were verbally attacked with racial slurs by a seemingly disheveled and definitely racist white couple. When I first read what happened and viewed the video below, my years of experience as a prosecutor and criminal defense lawyer immediately made me wonder why Jed and Granny Clampett were not arrested for assault and/or battery?
But being that this is America, and being that my native Florida, be it the Trayvon Martin case, the Jordan Davis case, or the fact that in some quarters, the Confederate Battle Flag is displayed with a fiercer pride than the Mickey Mouse logo, I am not shocked that two hard-hearted racists were caught on tape harassing black people because of the color of their skin.
Check out this deplorable video for yourself and when done, read the first hand account of the event from Dr. Banks, an account that once again shows that even when hard-working, well-educated, law-abiding black people do the right thing, that some law enforcement officers will assume that the white person or couple who were spewing the racist invectives must be the real “victims.”
Dr. Covey Banks’s Facebook post from May 27th:
“This happened last night.
A woman was telling her daughter to pee in the pool we were in, while the little girl was crying and begging her mom to take her to the bathroom. The mom started looking around, we presumed for the bathroom, and we pointed it out to her. She started yelling “you don’t know what MY daughter is saying,” “I’m taking her to the bathroom,” “I wasn’t telling her to pee in the pool (guilty conscience), etc etc. Figuring she was embarrassed because she got caught being nasty, we paid her no mind. As she’s walking to the bathroom she tells grandpa? to “go up there.” He comes up and shortly after, she returns. She’s still saying stuff and telling her kids to splash us. After a couple of cannonballs, we started splashing too. I mean, we’re in a pool, we don’t mind splashing. Then the mom says “come on let’s leave these black bitches.” So now we’re calling names?! Sticks and stones… ok, leave, bye! But apparently they weren’t getting enough of a reaction out of us. The grandma starts yelling “black bitch” and “black bitches” as they’re exiting the pool. When the mom makes a threat I got out of the pool. The mom and the dad kept walking but the grandma and grandpa continued to antagonize us. You know they dropped the n-word. The grandma tried to swing at my niece and knock her phone out of her hand. I grabbed her arm and stopped her. See the video…
Afterward we called hotel security. Who do you think they talked to? Giving them the benefit of the doubt that the other party ambushed them, do you think they came to hear our side after? You know, from the party that actually called and who got harassed? Nope.
Then we called the police. Guess who they went to first? I went over to the officer, said I’m the one who called, and that they were the ones yelling, making threats and using racial slurs. The officer said “we got 2 calls and 2 cars are being dispatched. I’ll talk to them and you can talk to the other officer when he gets here. Go stand over there and wait.” Oh, word?!
We go over and wait, another officer comes and asks if I want to press charges. He said that we would both get charged because she had a scratch on her arm. 
🙄 She screams, curses, yells racial slurs, obviously under the influence, swings at my niece but she got a scratch on her arm for being stopped and we’ll BOTH be charged?! 2/3 officers were rude and completely unprofessional. I gave my statement. Witnesses also came downstairs and wrote their statements in our defense.
Their behavior was completely and utterly disgusting. The follow-up was even worse.”
Yes, their behavior was completely and utterly disgusting, Dr. Banks. But such vituperative acts and remarks have become par for the course these days, as racists now cry as if they are the victims. Even worse is that more often than not, whether it is at Starbucks, Waffle House, the NFL or the Omni Resort in Orlando, the corporate powers that be and law enforcement officials routinely fail to protect the rights of all of their consumers and constituents regardless of race, religion and other demographic markers.
Yes, a change must come, but if we do not demand change with our words and our deeds (boycott), the status quo will remain.
