# Permit Patty Permit Patty is the nickname given to Alison Ettel, an Oakland woman recorded on June 23, 2018 calling police on an 8-year-old Black girl selling bottled water outside her apartment. The clip, posted by the girl's cousin on Twitter with the hashtag #PermitPatty, drew comparison to BBQ Becky and sparked days of outrage once Ettel's job as CEO of a dog cannabis startup surfaced. By late June 2018, San Francisco station KTVU had published her 911 audio and local dispensaries publicly cut business ties with her company. ## Origin On June 23, 2018, Twitter user @_ethiopiangold, the 8-year-old girl's cousin, posted the ground-level recording with the caption that her 'little cousin was selling water and didn't have a permit so this lady decided to call the cops'[1]. That tweet carried the first use of the #PermitPatty hashtag, which attached to Ettel within hours. The girl's mother, @ladyesowavy on Instagram, mirrored the clip to her own account where it reached more than 1.2 million views[2]. - **Platform:** Twitter / Instagram (viral spread) - **Creator:** @_ethiopiangold - **Date:** 2018 ## Overview Posts tagged #PermitPatty share the vertical cellphone clip of Ettel crouched against her apartment building's exterior wall holding a phone, while the girl's mother narrates offscreen that police are being called over an unpermitted water stand[1]. The nickname slots into the alliterative 'first name plus minor offense' pattern that BBQ Becky set weeks earlier in the same city, where a white caller gets a diminutive label for summoning police on Black people doing ordinary things[4]. Captions and quote-tweets zeroed in on Ettel's day job as CEO of TreatWell, a cannabis startup selling medicated products for dogs, which critics set against the triviality of a child's water stand[3]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Permit Patty? Permit Patty is the nickname given to Alison Ettel, an Oakland woman filmed on June 23, 2018 calling police on an 8-year-old Black girl selling bottled water on a public sidewalk[1]. ### Where did Permit Patty come from? The nickname and hashtag #PermitPatty were coined by @_ethiopiangold on Twitter in the caption of the original cellphone video showing the incident outside Ettel's Oakland apartment building[1]. ### What does Permit Patty mean? It labels a white person who summons police over trivial complaints involving Black people, in this case Ettel's claim that an 8-year-old selling water lacked a permit[3]. The nickname follows the same alliterative pattern as BBQ Becky from Oakland weeks earlier[4]. ### How do you use Permit Patty? People typically share the cellphone clip or still of Ettel on the phone with sarcastic commentary about her role as CEO of a dog cannabis company TreatWell, tagged #PermitPatty[3]. The format is used to name similar bystander-calls-police incidents by analogy[4]. ### Is Permit Patty still popular? It is referenced historically in coverage of 'Karen' style callers and alongside BBQ Becky, with its viral peak concentrated in late June 2018 after KTVU released Ettel's actual 911 audio[5]. ## References 1. [https://x.com/i/status/1010577140595560448]() 2. [https://www.instagram.com/p/BkXWMlWguex/?taken-by=ladyesowavy]() 3. [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/white-woman-sees-black-girl-selling-water-allegedly-calls-police_us_5b2e94a5e4b00295f15cf35f]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/permit-patty]() 5. [https://www.dailydot.com/irl/permit-patty-called-911-alison-ettel/]() 6. [https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/8us4v6/biscuits/]() 7. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W4Ll3Y2DS0]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/permit-patty Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library