She called 911 on the guy. While it’s not completely clear from the video exactly when she did this, she does not appear to be on her phone at any time during the video exchange, and the New York Times story has the black guy saying that the police turned up his door “about 30 minutes after” the encounter. From all of that, I think it’s reasonable to infer that she called 911 after the exchange, and after seeing that he (a) had a key fob to the front door of the building, and (b) had a key to an apartment within the building.
I’ve heard of people arrested for inappropriate use of 911 before. I believe that this is an inappropriate use of 911, especially given the possible consequences for young black men who have contact with the police in some parts of the United States.
I agree that tailgating can be an issue in apartment buildings, especially large ones where not everyone who lives there knows the identity of all the other tenants. But we don’t know for sure that this is the original reason behind her blocking the entrance. The guy, for obvious reasons, only started recording the incident after the first exchange, so we don’t see the initial contact. You might assume that her initial rationale was to prevent tailgating, but there’s not much in the video or other evidence to sustain that conclusion.
If you want to stop someone from tailgating, you just say (as I’ve said to people in the past), “Look, I don’t want to seem unreasonable, but this is a big building, and I don’t know you. I’m looking out for everyone’s security, so I’m just going to close the door, and if you have the fob, you’ll be able to get in without any trouble.” I’ve said exactly that before. Then, when they use the fob and get into the building, I say something like, “Sorry, I know that might seem silly, but I think a couple of seconds inconvenience is worth it for building security.” If one of my own guests complained to me that another building tenant had refused to let them in the front door, I’d tell them that the other tenant was doing the right thing.
The problem, of course, is that too often racial assumptions enter the equation. My wife and I were staying in a friend’s apartment in Chelsea in New York City some years back, and I stopped a couple of people from tailgating us into the building. They were annoyed and incredulous, and asked, “Do we really look like burglars?” I told them that I don’t know what burglars look like, and asked if it would have been OK for me to stop them if they had been black (instead of white and Asian, respectively). They grumbled under their breath and just kept walking.
It’s good that she’s got you looking out for that two and a half percent.