Permit Patty: White woman 'calls police' on 8-year-old girl for selling water

The woman, Alison Ettel, says that there was 'no racial component' for her decision and that she only 'pretended' to call police

Alison Ettel (Erin Austin) (Erin Austin)

A white woman in San Francisco was been recorded appearing to call the police on a black eight-year-old girl for "illegally" selling bottled water on the sidewalk.

Footage of the incidents has been viewed millions of times across a number of social media platforms, with the woman, Alison Ettel, being nicknamed "permit Patty".

The young girl, named Jordan Rodgers, had been selling water to raise money for a trip to Disneyland, according to her mother Erin Austin, because Ms Austin had lost her job.

Ms Ettel said that there was "no racial component" for her decision and that she only "pretended" to call the police. The San Francisco Police Department did not respond to a request for comment

"This woman don't want a little girl to sell some water, she's calling the police on an eight-year-old girl," the child's mother, Ms Austin, who took the video, is heard saying during the clip.

Ms Ettel is seen on the phone, then ducks down out of sight behind a partition after seeing she is being recorded.

"Don't hide, the whole world going to see you, boo," the woman filming says.

"Yeah, and um, illegally selling water without a permit?" Ms Ettel says into the phone.

Ms Ettel said that the incident began because the girl's mother was "screaming."

“I tried to be polite, but I was stern, and I said, ‘Please, I’m trying to work, you’re screaming, you’re yelling, and people have open windows. It’s a hot day. Can you please keep it down?’” Ms Ettel said in an interview that aired on NBC’soday.”

Ms. Austin, however, disputed that account, telling the programme that she and Ms Ettel had never discussed the noise.

Ms Ettel told HuffPost in an interview that the incident which has left her feeling "horrible and heart-wrenched,"

"I have no problem with enterprising young women. I want to support that little girl. It was all the mother and just about being quiet," she added.

"I completely regret that I handled that so poorly. It was completely stress-related, and I should have never confronted her. That was a mistake, a complete mistake" she said.

The video is remeniscent of another one from May, which showed an Oakland woman who called the police on two black men grilling in a park without a permit, who was given the name #BBQBecky".