A San Francisco supervisor, the city’s equivalent to a city council member, announced Tuesday that he had introduced legislation aimed at so-called Karens who fabricate racist stories in calls to emergency services. Shamann Walton, supervisor for District 10 of the city, wrote, “Racist 911 calls are unacceptable that’s why I’m introducing the CAREN Act at today’s SF Board of Supervisors meeting. This is the CAREN we need. Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies.” Although filing a false police report is already against the law, the act would add a hate crime designation to the penalty based on the racial animus of a manufactured story. In response to a number of recent incidents where white people, particularly white women, called the police on people of color without reason, the name Karen has become a meme referring to the behavior.
Oh, when Karens take a walk with their dogs off leash in the famous Bramble in NY’s Central Park, where it is clearly posted on signs that dogs MUST be leashed at all times, and someone like my brother (an avid birder) politely asks her to put her dog on the leash. pic.twitter.com/3YnzuATsDm
