Bank takes action over employee who confronted Black Lives Matter supporter
Raymond James said an employee pictured in a widely shared video showing a man and a woman confronting a neighbor for stenciling "Black Lives Matter" on his San Francisco residence no longer works at the firm.
The investment bank did not confirm the name of the employee, but CBS affiliate KPIX 5 identified him as Robert Larkins. The man in the video identifies himself as Robert. A regulatory filing shows a Robert J. Larkins as recently employed in Raymond James's San Francisco office.
In the statement on Twitter, Raymond James said the firm "has zero tolerance for racism or discrimination of any kind" and that it expects "our associates to conduct themselves appropriately inside and outside of the workplace."
A Raymond James news release from July 2019 refers to Larkins as Western regional manager in the brokerage firm's public finance department. A bio of Larkins from a 2017 industry conference says that he has helped local governments raise more than $15 billion over his 33-year career. It also says he worked at Lehman Brothers, but left that firm in 2008.
The video, which first appeared Tuesday on the Facebook page of James Juanillo and which has been viewed nearly 16 million times, shows a white couple asking him whether he lives in the house and accusing him of breaking the law. The recording has sparked accusations of racism against Larkins and the woman in the video, Lisa Alexander, who is the founder and CEO of LaFace Skincare.
Juanillo was stenciling "Black Lives Matter" with chalk on Tuesday in front of his home when he was confronted by Alexander and Larkins, who eventually called the police.
Over the weekend, both Larkins and Alexander issued apologies related to the video. A statement attributed to Larkins said he has recognized his own "personal blind spots" and that he "was wrong to question Mr. Juanillo, and I was wrong to call the neighborhood police watch." In the statement, Larkins said he was "profoundly sorry for treating him with disrespect."
Larkins could not be reached for comment. Raymond James declined to offer comment beyond the firm's statement on Twitter.
In a statement to CBS News on Sunday, Alexander said, "I want to apologize directly to Mr. Juanillo. There are not enough words to describe how truly sorry I am for being disrespectful to him last Tuesday when I made the decision to question him about what he was doing in front of his home."
Juanillo, who is Filipino, told a San Francisco TV station that he believes the couple accused him of defacing private property because they didn't think he belonged in the wealthy Pacific Heights neighborhood.
Last month, Franklin Templeton fired Amy Cooper after a video emerged of the white woman calling the cops on a black man who asked her to put her dog on a lease as required in New York City's Central Park.
The Associated Press contributed reporting to this article.
