Updated 12/15/2023 at 2:13 p.m. ET:
Let’s be real, white ‘Karens’ come in varying degrees of extreme, but the most common form seems to be the type of white woman who goes out of her way to weaponize her privilege to cover up her own misdeeds.
There was the Karen who went on a racist rampage while trying to steal from a grocery store or even the white woman who called the police on a Black man who was simply birdwatching from Central Park.
Although things worked out in the latter incident — the Karen lost her job, and the Black bird watcher got his own show — most victims of Karens aren’t so lucky.
Enter Hannah Payne, a white woman from Georgia who tried using the dumbest lie to cover up the murder of a Black man. On Tuesday, she was convicted of all charges relating to the murder of 62-year-old Kenneth Herring, who she pursued after seeing him commit a minor hit-and-run accident in May 2019.
On Friday, she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after she was found guilty on all counts of felony murder, malice murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm, and false imprisonment earlier in the week, according to WSB-TV.
If you don’t know the story, Payne witnessed Herring, allegedly hitting a tractor-trailer, and he left without notifying the police. Legally carrying a concealed firearm, Payne took it upon herself to play Batgirl and followed Herring for about a mile before cutting off his car, making it difficult for the 62-year-old Herring to move his car.
During the vehicular struggle, Payne called 911, and could be heard yelling, “Get out of the car, get out of the car, get out of the f****** car! I’m going to shoot you!”
When she did eventually shoot Herring after he would not get out of his car, she switched up and told the 911 operator, “He just shot himself with my gun.”
Karen, please.
It was previously reported that Herring left the accident because he was in the middle of a medical emergency, likely “diabetic shock,” according to 11 Alive News.
WSB-TV reported that Payne was told by the 911 operator to not pursue Herring in the first place.