Calling the police isn't illegal, but lying to them is. "There's an African-American man threatining my life," (which she said twice during the call in her best "damsel in distress" voice) was a lie. And she'd have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for that pesky video.

She wasn't just reprimanded for that, charges were filed against her by the assistant district attorney (they were eventually dropped after Christian refused to aid the investigation and Amy did five days of "don't be racist anymore" therapy).

But aside from the wording of that one sentence (which I concede is a big thing to put aside given the circumstances), Christian was completely in the right. He approached her politely initially, and it was only after she refused to follow the rules that he issued that infamous line.

I see your point about "a racist" vs "behaved in a racist way", and normally I'd veer towards the latter too. But this case is so egregious that the former feels more appropriate to me.

As I said, I think we've been so overexposed to the cruelty and hysteria of the online mob, that we're reluctant to recognise when somebody does something truly heinous. This is exactly why I wrote about Emma Sarley being fired for telling Frederick Joseph to "stay in his hood".

Emma clearly didn't deserve to be fired. But I think Amy did. If I were her employer, I'd probably have fired her too. Not because I'm black or because I want to punish her. But because how could I ever trust her to be in a position of authority over a black employee? In fact, how could I trust her at all if she'd rather lie to the police than follow a simple rule?

Amy's behaviour wasn't simply unconscious bias. It was a very conscious attempt to weaponise Christian's race against him. I think it's important to recognise the difference between those. The online mob is far too often guilty of treating the former like the latter. But I think it's important we don't steer so hard away from those crazies, that we treat the latter like the former.