A UPS driver who gave a racist speech while delivering a package to a Latino home in Milwaukee several days before the end of Christmas Day, a company spokesman told NBC News on Tuesday.
Images captured by the video camera on the home bell on the night of December 17 show a white man wearing a UPS uniform, standing on a porch holding a package and writing what appears to be a “failed delivery” warning.
“Now you don’t understand f —— nothing … You can’t read, write and speak f —— English language”, the UPS driver is seen saying while pasting the sign on the door A young Latin policeman lives in the house.
“UPS is huge, they are global and that goes for any other company that is delivering packages, you can’t do that. You can’t just look at a package and make these crazy assumptions,” Shirley Aviles, the policeman’s mother Latino who lives in the house told NBC News by phone.
Due to privacy concerns, the name of the terminated UPS driver was not released.
Latin defense group Forward Latino held a press conference on Tuesday on behalf of the Latin policeman and his mother, almost two weeks after the incident, after several failed attempts to get UPS to respond, said Forward Latino President Darryl Morin . The young policeman, who was not identified, did not attend the press conference.
“The only information this driver had that could trigger this profound hatred was the name on the packaging,” said Morin during the news conference. The package surname was Avilés.
Digital records of the bell video camera service provided by the family and shared with reporters by Forward Latino do not show the UPS employee ringing the bell when he delivered the package to Avilés’ home. Morin added that there is also no evidence that the worker knocked on the door.
“The package was a Christmas gift that we eventually received after Christmas Day, but what if it had an urgent content like an epipen or a book that I needed to make a final,” said the policeman’s mother. “I don’t understand. It’s just sad.”
“So what we have here is a very intentional act to ruin someone’s Christmas, to throw up this hateful rhetoric and honestly deceive their employer,” said Morin.
Matthew O’Connor, UPS’s senior media relations manager, said in an email that the company “immediately contacted the family to offer our deepest apologies when we heard about this incident.”
“There is no place in any community for racism, intolerance or hatred. This is very serious and we promptly act, terminating the driver’s job. UPS is fully committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, ”he said.
The Aviles family learned of the termination of the UPS driver after the press conference on Tuesday.
However, Aviles said, “this is bigger than just ‘hey, I’m sorry, he was fired and we apologize'”.
“This is about the things people do when they think no one is watching them. This is important because it is when you see people’s true colors and that is what scares them,” said Aviles, who works at a social service agency. locally known.
The Milwaukee community has been rocked by racially charged incidents. A Peruvian immigrant suffered acid burns on his face in an alleged racist attack in November 2019. More recently, protests have grown after the Kenosha police shooting that paralyzed Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man.
Aviles and Forward Latino are asking UPS to “make greater investments” in anti-prejudice and inclusion training.
UPS drivers undergo “professionalism and anti-harassment training” when they are hired for the job, said O’Connor. The company also donates to various causes and scholarship funds through the UPS Foundation.
UPS is the largest employer in the Teamsters Union. However, “this is a personal problem that the local union has no comment on,” a Teamster spokesman said by email.
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