Liz Ovits was at the Caravan 4 Justice march on Saturday (August 29) in Seal Beach, California to support the victims of racial injustice during a peaceful protest.
The 31-year-old, Long Beach resident, who is a white woman, was helping bring awareness to the Black Lives Movement when she suddenly found herself at the center of a racially charged verbal altercation when a man told her to “go f*** yourself, n***** lover. F*** you.”
Ovits posted the footage on social media, and after piecing together several electronic clues, she later claims to have discovered the man who’d delivered the hateful speech was retired El Segundo police Sgt. Tim Brenner.
The following is Ovits’ account of the ordeal:
“We’ve been working with Caravan 4 Justice to bring police reform and social justice to our community of Long Beach and beyond through the protests, unity marches, petitions, city council meetings and community outreach. The march on Saturday had just started on Pacific Coast Highway and Main Street when this guy started dropping ‘N’ bombs—so I started filming him. He then turned on his camera and walked up to our car, yelling. I asked him to back away because he wasn’t wearing a mask, but he kept getting closer. He called me a ‘N’ lover and he called one of our Black activist leaders the ‘N’ word. After posting the video on TikTok and Instagram, we received a lot of comments, as people were trying to figure out who this guy was.
“Instagram user @flute_ballou responded to a comment on the video defending his actions and exposing himself. It was clear from the photos on @flute_ballou’s page that this was the same person, even though he changed his profile photo to a Black man.
“People were commenting to @flute_ballou on my post and on his Instagram handle. After looking into it deeper, we discovered that people called him ‘Tim’ on his Instagram. On one of his old Instagram comments, it showed that his account used to be @TimKBrenner. That’s where we discovered it was retired El Segundo police Sgt. Tim Brenner, so I updated the caption to my video to reveal his identity. Then he found my phone number through my photography website, texted me that he was going to sue me for slander and that I crossed a line. He then deleted his Instagram.”
