A city in California is tired of “Karens” making racist and discriminatory 911 calls and is considering a new ordinance that would make it illegal for them to do so. The Berkeley City Council is planning to meet next week to discuss the ordinance, which would expand on a current municipal code and will outlaw false reports to police based solely on race, sex or anything that can be deemed discriminatory or racially biased, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Proposed by Councilmember Kate Harrison, calling the police based on a person’s race, age, sex, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or nationality are all a no-no in this proposed ordinance, which is based on San Francisco’s 2020 CAREN Act, which stands for Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies.
More from the Los Angeles Times:
“Such incidents cause serious harm to the person falsely accused of a crime, contribute to defamation, cause anxiety and distrust among people of color and other people, and put an unnecessary strain on law enforcement officers responding to frivolous and false calls,” according to the ordinance.
In her proposal, Harrison cited discriminatory calls outlined in Berkeley Police Review Commission’s 2017 “To Achieve Fairness and Impartiality: Report and Recommendations” report.
As The Root has reported a plethora of times, Karens seemingly just can’t help themselves and will call the police on a Black person for just about anything.
We all remember the infamous Karen who called the police on a Black man simply because he was bird-watching in a New York City park. She filed a lawsuit against her former employer who fired her because of the incident, claiming that they wrongfully terminated and defamed her as a racist. But, she ended up losing the suit anyway.
In other cases, a Karen will call the police on a Black man for simply “speeding” through their own neighborhood, such as the white woman who called the cops on NFL Hall of Famer Terrell Owens, who was simply driving to his mailbox. A Karen in Seattle even called the cops on a Black man for standing on his own damn property. Yes, his own property.
Hopefully this ordinance is approved and eventually adopted by cities across the country because this Karen-like behavior has gone way too far.