Maybe it really is time we stop giving white people who seek to weaponize the police against Black people cutesy little nicknames like “BBQ Becky” or “Central Park Karen.” Perhaps it’s time for more fitting monikers like “Terrorist Tammy” or “Killer by Police Kathy.”
In Montclair, N.J., a white woman has been dubbed “Permit Karen” after she confronted her Black neighbors to question them about whether they had a permit to build a patio on their own property. This, of course, caused a heated argument between the Black husband and wife and the white woman who apparently suffers from the common Caucasian condition of being allergic to minding her own business. At some point during the argument, the white woman accuses the Black man of pushing her and she calls the police. That’s where the video starts.
In a Facebook Live video posted Monday, the Black neighbor—identified as Fareed Nassor Hayat—included a lengthy caption where he denies putting his hands on the woman and said all he did was ask her to leave.
“It has happened again,” Hayat wrote. “White entitlement and Black hate embodied in Susan who lives on Marion Road and works at the EPA, called the police to lodge a false report of assault against me when told to leave our property. Susan, aka ‘Permit Karen,’ came onto our property three times within thirty minutes to demand to know if we had the proper permit to install a stone patio in our backyard, on the other side of the fence of her yard. When asked if a permit was required by law, she said she didn’t know, but insisted we answer her questions and submit to her demands, or she would call the police to force us to stop improving our home.”
Hayat goes on to say that he and his wife did the research, consulted with their contractor and “verified when building and safety arrived” that they did not need a permit to build “a stone patio this size” on their property.
First, let’s just acknowledge the degree of caucasity on display here…
If this white woman doesn’t even know whether or not a permit is required, why the fuck is Public Menace Patty out here policing her neighbors in the first place? Why are white people so often convinced that it’s their job to act as officers of the law when they are not officers at all? And then, when their self-proclaimed authority is rejected, they call actual police to do their dirty work.
Fortunately, several of the Black couple’s neighbors can be seen in the video coming to their defense and denouncing Walking Hate Crime Wendy as the racist harasser that she is.
“In this climate right now you are, especially, not supporting members of our community here?” one neighbor asks her. Other neighbors simply told her she needed to go the hell away.
According to Montclair Local, Montclair Deputy Police Chief Wilhelm Young released a statement regarding the incident confirming only that police responded to a dispute between neighbors over work being done on the property, that no complaints were signed by either the white woman or the Black couple, and that the incident is under investigation.
Montclair Local also reported that, on Tuesday, around 30 Montclair residents staged a small protest against what one of the neighbors called “an act of racial bias by a white neighbor against a Black family.”