BOSTON — A Boston woman says a city worker called her a racial slur.
The woman's emotional Facebook post has been viewed more than 20,000 times and the department is now investigating the worker.
Boston consultant Webly Alfred said the day she took to Facebook Live after a parking enforcement officer confronted her about parking in a commercial zone was one of the worst in her life.
“She said, ‘well, I'm going to give you a ticket because monkey see, monkey do,’" Alfred told FOX25.
Webly, an African-American, says she wasn't familiar with the expression and asked if the white female enforcement officer was calling her a monkey. And she was shocked at the response.
“So what? The country where you're from, you don't know what an expression is?’ I said, ‘there you go again. What does my country of origin have to do with you issuing a citation?’" Webly said.
Her tearful Facebook post she made right after the confrontation was shared dozens of times and got the attention of Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson and the Mass. Association for Minority Law Enforcement officers.
"If we find out who did this, we'll take the appropriate action," Boston Mayor Marty Walsh told FOX25. "We work for the public. The employees of the city of Boston work on behalf of the public. We should be working with them and not insulting them."
In a statement, the city says they're conducting an internal review.
"The alleged behavior will not be tolerated to any degree in any department and the Boston Transportation Department spoke with all shifts today to make that clear," the statement read.
“The part that upset me the most was that her job is to de-escalate situations. Her job is to be in control of a situation. But I was dealing with was someone who went from an expression, to repeating the expression and she's escalating it to the point where you're questioning my country of origin,” Webly said.
The city says it will take action after the results of the internal review are finalized.
Cox Media Group