A white venture capitalist who threatened to call 911 on a group of African American entrepreneurs working out in a Minneapolis gym has ha...
A white venture capitalist who threatened to call 911 on a group of African American entrepreneurs working out in a Minneapolis gym has had his office lease terminated.
Tom Austin, the managing partner of F2 Group, was filmed challenging the men inside the Mozaic East building, in Uptown, on Tuesday night, telling them 'I'm a tenant here. Are you?' before threatening to call the police.
The men, who own social media agency Top Figure, responded to Austin's hounding by informing him they also have an office in the building and reserve the right to use its amenities.
The altercation, which took place the same night video emerged of George Floyd dying in police custody in the city, led to Austin's company losing its lease in the building on Wednesday.
'Should have handled it differently,' Austin told the Star Tribune in an emailed statement. 'Not my job to have done anything.'
Venture capitalist Tom Austin threatened to call the cops on a group of African American men working out in an office gym shared by a number of businesses. The men were actually entrepreneurs from another business - Top Figure - and have posted the video on Instagram
There has been days of unrest in Minneapolis over Floyd's death at the hands of four white cops, one of whom knelt on his neck for six minutes until he lost consciousness during his arrest for allegedly trying to use a fake $20 bill.
Outrage was also sparked in New York City on Monday when white dog walker Amy Cooper, 41, hysterically dialed 911 on birdwatcher, Christian Cooper, claiming an 'African American man is threatening my life', after he asked her to leash her dog.
The men who uploaded the video of Austin say the footage offers yet another stark example of racial profiling in action.
'I'm Tom Austin,' the venture capitalist is heard saying in the video of the dispute. 'I’m a tenant in the building — are you?'
The men in the group, who are all black, respond to Austin confirming that they're all tenants, but decline Austin's repeated requests to disclose what office they're in.
Austin persists, however, asking 'What office? What office are you in?' to which the group of men say they do not have to answer his questions. Austin then threatens to call the police.
As Austin reaches for his phone, one of the group is heard saying: 'As you guys can see, we’re dealing with racism here.'
On the phone, Austin can be heard saying 'there's a whole bunch of people who don't appear to be...' before his conversation becomes inaudible
There has been days of unrest in Minneapolis over Floyd's death at the hands of four white cops, one of whom knelt on his neck for six minutes until he lost consciousness during his arrest for allegedly trying to use a fake $20 bill
On the phone, Austin can be heard saying 'there's a whole bunch of people who don't appear to be...' before his conversation becomes inaudible.
Though he threatened to call authorities, Austin actually called the building manager, who confirmed the men do indeed have a lease in the WeWork section of the building.
In an interview with Business Insider, Austin said the property's building manager had previously emailed tenants about concerns that non-tenants had been using the gym, and that he had not seen the men use their individual key FOBs.
According to the StarTribune, Austin has since had his lease with the building terminated by the owners of the building the Ackerberg Group.
'My heart hurts,' said Stuart Ackerberg, CEO of Ackerberg Group, to the Tribune. 'This is not how we do business. … I'm alarmed by what I saw. It appears they had every right to be there and to use that amenity.'
Ackerberg said he spoke to Austin the day after the incident, saying that he told him he did not think the situation was handled well, and that there were other ways he could have approaching it.
'It's unfortunate. Our goal is to create a safe and inviting experience for everybody,' he added.
One of the businessmen from Top Figure filmed the confrontation with Austin, who has reportedly since had his lease terminated by the business that owns the building
Top Figure is a social media and branding agency and based in the building in Minneapolis, pictured above. The posted the video of Austin to their Instagram account.
Austin has since apologized for his conduct. He said; 'Yes, I f****d up. Should have handled it differently. Not my job to have done anything. Building management had been complaining that tenants were allowing their friends to trespassing and use a private gym that was authorized only for building tenants.
'Said hello to everyone when I walked in. But after working out for 10 minutes, I noticed that one of the tenants seemed to have brought 4 friends and I complained to them that this isn't right.
'One guy was letting his other 4 friends in and out of the building with his pass card FOB. Four guys didn't have a FOB. When I said something, they got in my face accusing me of racial profiling. I said it wasn't racial profiling and it was all about suspicious activity/behavior. Because they were in my face and didn't have pass cards, I took photos and called the property manager. I only called the building property manager! Never called 911.
'When I left the gym, at the end of the night I said "Have a great night, hope we're good." and did a fist bump with each of them! There is way more to the story. Fake news!'
Along with the video of the confrontation, Top Figure posted a statement about the incident on Instagram, explaining that they all pay rent at the office space and have built their business there for a year and a half.
'Normally we don't speak out about encounters of racial profiling and age discrimination that we face day to day in our lives as young black entrepreneurs.
'Although today May 26th 2020 7:51 p.m. we encountered a situation where a man entered the facility, a shared private gym that we utilize in our office located in uptown Minnesota.
'Granted we've been in this office space and have rented and grown our business for the past 1 year and half here. As we were working out this man approached and immediately asked us who we were and if "WE BELONG" in this building.
'Granted in order to enter the building you NEED a key card to enter EVERY part of the building which EACH of our team members individually have.
'We all pay rent here and this man demanded that we show him our key cards or he will call the cops on us. We are sick and tired of tolerating this type of behavior on a day to day basis and we feel that we had to bring light onto this situation,' the post concluded.
The men have not yet responded to a DailyMail.com request for comment.
Austin said that he and the men continued to exercise together in the gym, telling Business Insider that he thought he was being helpful, and that the argument had blown over after they went their separate ways.
The incident has gained significant attention on social media, with Top Figure's post on Instagram being liked by more than 50,000 people.
It is the third racially charged incident that has hit the headlines this week. On Monday, a video was shared on social media showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of George Floyd - a black man - for over 8 minutes until he died.
The incident has sparked protests in Minneapolis and public outrage against police brutality, and the four MPD police officers involved have been fired, with further investigations pending.
Tom Austin is the CEO of a Minneapolis venture capital company called F2.
George Floyd was filmed Monday begging the Minneapolis cop to stop kneeling on him and telling him he could not breathe before he lost consciousness and later died
Floyd's killing in Minneapolis has provoked days of unrest in Minneapolis, cluminating in looting last night, pictured.
On the same day at around 8 a.m., a white woman named Amy Cooper, 41, was walking her dog off the leash in Central Park in New York, when a black man - Christian Cooper, who was out bird watching - asked if she could put her dog on the leash.
In response to the calm request, Cooper hysterically called the police, howling that an 'African American man is trying to threaten my life'.
She has since been terminated from her job as head of insurance investment solutions at Franklin Templeton on Tuesday, having been placed on administrative leave a day earlier.
Following the backlash against Cooper’s actions, New York State Lawmakers Assemblyman Felix Ortiz and Senator Brian Benjamin introduced new legislation Tuesday that would make falsely reporting an incident as a hate crime illegal, should it pass.
While the NYPD say they’ll not be pursuing charges against Cooper, the New York City Commission on Human Rights has announced that it’s launching its own investigation into the matter, calling the incident 'unacceptable'.
Also Monday,
Before her termination was announced, Cooper told CNN she wanted to ‘publicly apologize to everyone’, and insisted she isn’t a racist and didn’t intend to inflict any harm on the African-American community.
‘I'm not a racist. I did not mean to harm that man in any way,’ she told the network. ‘I think I was just scared. When you're alone in the Ramble, you don't know what's happening. It's not excusable, it's not defensible.’
Cooper says that now the video has sparked widespread outrage online, her 'entire life is being destroyed right now'.
The incident has since been cited as yet another example of white people calling the police on African-Americans for unnecessary reasons, in acts many interpret to be fueled by racial prejudice.
‘I videotaped it because I thought it was important to document things,’ Cooper, a Harvard graduate, later explained to NBC New York.
‘We live in an age of Ahmaud Arbery where black men are gunned down because of assumptions people make about black men, black people, and I’m just not going to participate in that,’ he continued. ‘I'm not going to participate in my own dehumanization.'
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