JENSEN BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — A viral video recorded at Jensen Public Beach is drawing outrage after a confrontation between a fisherman and another beachgoer escalated into racial slurs.
Fishing is allowed at Jensen Public Beach, according to a sign near the entrance. But in the widely shared, roughly three-minute video, a beachgoer confronts a Black fisherman, saying he is too close to children playing nearby.
The video begins with the fisherman, who is recording, questioning why the man approached him.
“You just walked over here, and you just decided you wanted to come give me a f— problem, right?” the fisherman says.
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The man argues that the fisherman should move away from the children.
“He told you you couldn’t be right here. It’s common sense, basic humanity, that you don’t go even though there’s a bunch of kids,” the man says. The fisherman responds, “If I’m allowed to do something, then I’m allowed to do something. The kids are going to run wherever they want to run.”
The fisherman says a lifeguard had already told him where he could legally fish and that he was following those directions.
“If this is where he told me I need to be, that’s where I’m at. And then you decided that you were gonna police even more and come over here and say you know what, I don’t like where you’re at. I want you to move right?” he says.
As the argument continues, the man claims he works for a fire department but does not identify which one.
In the video, the fisherman asks, “Where’s your badge? Who are you? Where’s your badge?” The man replies, “I’m a fire department as well.” The fisherman responds, “This is a f—- beach, this is not a fire.”
On social media, Martin County Fire Rescue said the man in the video does not work for the agency. He also does not work for Palm Beach or St. Lucie counties.
Jensen Beach beachgoer Judah Crombie said he saw the video online and found it disturbing. “This guy is just a male Karen – for sure,” Crombie said. “That right there was totally unnecessary.”
The video includes offensive language, including racial slurs. It ends with the man’s wife trying to pull him away, but she is heard repeating a racial slur.
“[N-word] are gonna be [N-word],” she yells.
Near the end of the video, the fisherman says, “That’s what you said, right?” and the woman responds, “100% absolutely.”
A friend of the fisherman said he was in town for the Balling on the Beach Youth basketball tournament and has since returned home to New Jersey.
The identities of the man and woman seen confronting him in the video have not been confirmed.