Husband Fired After Video of Couple Goes Viral

Robert Larkins loses finance job after confronting neighbor in Black Lives Matter dispute
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 16, 2020 12:30 PM CDT

More fallout has followed the release of a video, viewed more than 17 million times on Twitter, in which a white couple confronts a Filipino man who was writing "Black Lives Matter" in chalk on his San Francisco property. On Monday came news that cosmetics distributor Birchbox had cut ties with Lisa Alexander, the founder and CEO of LaFace Skincare, who told Pacific Heights resident James Juanillo that she knew the true homeowner and would call the cops. Juanillo says cops responded, recognized him as a resident of two decades, and left. Now, SFGate reports Alexander's husband, Robert Larkins—seen in the video accusing Juanillo of "defacing private property"—has been fired from his job as managing director at the San Francisco financial firm Raymond James.

"The actions of he and his partner were inconsistent with our values," the firm said Monday, adding it "has zero tolerance for racism or discrimination" and "expect[s] our associates to conduct themselves appropriately inside and outside of the workplace." A bio on the website of the California Association of County Treasurers and Tax Collectors describes Larkins as "Western Region Manager of Public Finance for Raymond James" who leads the "national tobacco securitization effort and co-leads the firm's national Pension/OPEB funding team." Like his wife, Larkins had apologized, per WABC. "I was wrong to question Mr. Juanillo, and I was wrong to call the neighborhood police watch," he said, referencing his "own ignorance of racial inequity" and "personal blind spots." (More Black Lives Matter stories.)

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