The city of San Francisco is being asked to take a stand against Karens.
Supervisor Shamann Walton introduced on Tuesday the Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies (or CAREN) Act, which would make it illegal to “fabricate false racially biased emergency reports.”
Over the last several weeks, examples of racial profiling have been recorded and made the rounds on social media, including instances of white women alleged to have used the threat of calling police against people of color. Those people who have been accused of such discrimination have been condescendingly labeled as a “Caren” or, more commonly a “Karen.”
“Racist 911 calls are unacceptable that’s why I’m introducing the CAREN Act at today’s SF Board of Supervisors meeting,” Walton tweeted Tuesday. “This is the CAREN we need. Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies.”
The ordinance aims to hold a person accountable for making a 9-1-1 report they know is exaggerated or untrue. As of Tuesday, it was unclear what the penalty might be.
Walton will be joining efforts with Assemblymember Rob Bonta of Oakland on the statewide AB1550 bill.
Several examples were listed in the statement announcing the ordinance, including a recent incident in which a woman called the police on a Filipino man stenciling “Black Lives Matter” in chalk in front of his home in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood.
This woman became known on social media as “San Francisco Karen” in a video that went viral. A search on Twitter for #Karen yields a seemingly-endless list of results.
In Alameda, police have appointed an outside investigator after a Black man was violently arrested while he was dancing and exercising outdoors.
Nationally, a woman called the police on a Black man who was bird watching in New York’s Central Park while accusing him of harassing her and George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis after someone called the police accusing him of using counterfeit money at a store to purchase cigarettes. She was charged with a misdemeanor of making a false report earlier this week.
