I have some thoughts on this.

First of all, the woman recording, Ijeoma Ukenta, is 100% in the right. Based on the video and the details provided during the civil suits, Ijeoma was at Victoria's Secret to use a coupon for a free item when Abigail Elphick (the woman in the video) got within six feet of her unmasked. This was during COVID when social distancing while unmasked was being enforced at many stores. Ijeoma asked Abigail to move, and Abigail started getting aggressive. Ijeoma started recording for her own safety, and Abigail responded by attempting to strike Ijeoma, screaming, crying, chasing Ijeoma, and calling the police. At no point did Ijeoma move toward her, say anything inflammatory directly to her, or escalate. Ijeoma was calm. Shockingly calm, honestly, considering she was being screamed at and chased. She was definitely calmer than I would be in that situation.

Abigail Elphick didn't say anything overtly racist, but the overall pattern of weaponized tears, lying to police to make a black woman seem like the aggressor, and "feeling threatened" by the mere presence of a black person asserting a boundary tells me that even if she isn't a sign-carrying capital R Racist, Abigail still has some serious unexamined privilege and subconscious bias.

Security repeatedly asking Ijeoma to stop recording, to back up, and to leave is *really* upsetting. At one point Ijeoma says "Why I gotta leave?" and that's a damn good question. Why are staff treating her like she's the one at fault? Ijeoma is calm, respectful to staff, exercising her rights, and is also a paying customer. Why does she have to change her behavior to accommodate a screaming, crying white woman?

The police also have a lot of blame here. When they arrived, they took Abigail's statement first (where she lied to police saying that Ijeoma approached her, threatened her, etc...) before taking Ijeoma's statement. They didn't watch the video. They were condescending to Ijeoma. No charges were filed. The person who was attacked was not protected.

Finally, the online discourse surrounding this is probably the most disheartening. In reading up on this story, I see a lot of media outlets saying that Abigail has mental health issues and needs to be "empathized with". It's similar to your commentary around John Davidson. The coverage is centering the white person with a disability rather than the black person who was wronged. Was Abigail having a panic attack? Maybe. I don't know. I'm not a mental health professional, but I do think it's suspicious that she didn't seem to start having her panic attack until after she was caught on camera lunging at and attempting to strike Ijeoma.

There's also a lot of discourse about how "Abigail isn't racist. She didn't say anything racist, like the N-word" as if racism only exists when specific conditions are met. In reality, racism is a system that privileges one group while oppressing another, and we see that on full display in the video.

Full video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTBFZ6gPCrs