A Black man was accused by a nosey (male) Karen of harassing a homeless person when it was revealed in court that the homeless person was the one acting erratically. The incident ended up in the Black man getting charged, but luckily a jury saw through the bull.
In August, 21-year-old Trevon Morgan was minding his Black business walking to a store near his home in the inner Sunset District of San Francisco when a white man who appeared to be without shelter and mentally unstable started following behind him, according to the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. The individual started badgering Morgan with racial slurs all the way until he got to the store and even continued when he exited the store.
From that point, the two got into an argument when along came a vigilante Karen sticking their nose in Morgan’s business.
The man drove up alongside Morgan and the unsheltered individual without all of the information and took the not-so-executive decision to accuse Morgan of being the threat. The Karen called the police and told them Morgan threatened to kill him and rob him. For theatrics, he also claimed Morgan put a dent in his car. However, no evidence supported these claims, the public defender’s office said in a statement.
When the police responded to the Karen’s complaint, even they were skeptical of what exactly was going on. On the scene, the Karen admitted that the dent to his vehicle appeared as a result of an incident prior to that moment. However, Morgan was still arrested.
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Despite this skepticism, Morgan was arrested based on false accusations. He was charged with felony attempted robbery of the bystander’s reading glasses. The judge released him from custody under the condition that he wear an ankle monitor and be subject to home detention.
As a result, Morgan lost his job as a security guard and was not able to provide for his pregnant girlfriend.
“The allegations in this case were reminiscent of other ‘Karen’ cases where someone called the police on a Black person who had done nothing wrong. Here, the complaining witness racially profiled Mr. Morgan, who is Black, assumed the worst about him and falsely accused him of wrongdoing based on the color of his skin,” said Deputy Public Defender Ilona Yañez, who represented Morgan.
After five long months of waiting for trial, it only took the jury 45 minutes to come back from deliberation and acquit Morgan of his charges, the report says.