A white woman who was recorded calling the police on an 8-year-old black girl selling bottled water without a permit has reportedly resigned from her job at a cannabis company in California.
Alison Ettel, dubbed by social media users as “Permit Patty,” stepped down from her position as the chief executive of TreatWell Health, Cynthia Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the firm, said in a statement obtained by KRON-TV on Tuesday.
“This decision, while not an easy one, is in the best interest of their patients,” Gonzalez wrote. “It is Ms. Ettel’s belief that TreatWell, its employees, and patients should not have to suffer because of a situation that occurred in an escalated moment. And she regrets her part and is remorseful.”
Ettel, who founded the company, made the decision to resign after several marijuana dispensaries in the Bay Area said they would no longer carry the cannabis company’s products after she was outed as the woman in a viral video saying she would call the police on a young girl selling water “illegally,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
In the viral video, Ettel can be seen on the phone appearing to report the little girl for “illegally selling water without a permit.”
{mosads}“An 8-year-old selling water in front of her apartment building where she’s lived her whole life is NOT a reason to call the police,” the little girl’s mother, Erin Austin, wrote in a post sharing the video on Instagram.
Ettel, who said earlier this week that’s she’s received thousands of death threats since the video was uploaded, later said she just “pretended” to call the police on the young girl because she was continuously yelling outside.
Ettel has since said that she is not proud of how she handled the Saturday incident and has publicly apologized to the girl and her mother for the incident she contends “has no racial component to it.”
According to NBC News, the little girl’s family has refused to accept Ettel’s apology.