It was only five years ago, former LAPD cop Renee McAlonis was celebrated in a local news site after having purchased a local pub in Santa Clarita, renovating it to the delight of the community.
What the article did not mention was that aside from her two-decade career as a Los Angeles police officer, McAlonis also had a history of arrests for drug possession and driving under the influence as well as trying to carry a gun on an airline.
Those arrests, including a recent one for domestic violence in May, would have flown under the radar had McAlonis not recently been featured in a viral video showing her and her husband harassing a Mexican fruit vendor for operating without a permit.
The video posted on Instagram begins with McAlonis telling the vendors that the “sheriffs are already on their way” before making a dash back into the passenger seat of a car after realizing she was being recorded.
Her husband, meanwhile, stood his ground with his fly open, telling the vendors they needed to leave because “we aren’t the f*cking ghetto.” Her husband has been identified as Mike Foster who might also be a former cop since he can’t help harassing others trying to earn a living.
Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies responded and gave the vendors a warning about operating without a license, according to Christopher Alcantar, the man who began recording after seeing the couple harassing the fruit vendors, posting the videos to Instagram.
But now that the videos have gone viral, the couple is getting slammed on social media as they become the latest victim to “cancel culture.”
An Instagram page titled Boycott Bergie’s has been posting about her previous arrests as well as other questionable allegations, including that she hires undocumented immigrants and pays them less than minimum wage, keeping them in line by threatening to call ICE on them.
Prior to shutting down her Facebook page, McAlonis posted she was annoyed that the fruit vendors were operating illegally in front of her business while state regulators kept shutting her down. The map below shows she was exaggerating by claiming they were operating in front of her business. They were on a sidewalk in front of a gas station facing a major thoroughfare.
Meanwhile, the fruit vendors have been showered with support and business since the video went viral. Their Instagram page, La Palma Fresh Fruit, went from less than 200 followers to more than 10,000 in one day.
McAlonis left the Los Angeles Police Department around the time she was getting arrested a few years back for drugs and driving under the influence as well as the gun incident in the airport. It is not clear at this time if she was employed at the time of her arrests.
One of the reasons she decided to buy the bar was because “Santa Clarita has a huge cop community,” she told the Santa Clarita Gazette in 2015.
