San Francisco's proposed 'CAREN Act' would make racist 911 calls illegal
The proposed ordinance was introduced on Tuesday at a San Francisco Board of Supervisors meeting, and its purpose is to make discriminatory or racist 911 calls illegal in the city. Officially, it’s called the “Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies Act,” but anyone can see the connection between its acronym and the label “Karen” that social media users deploy when white women are caught on camera acting entitled and/or racist.
There are plenty of examples of racially biased 911 calls, but the most memorable incident that the CAREN Act is designed to prevent is the one that occurred in Central Park back in May, when Amy Cooper called 911 as an intimidation tactic against Black bird-watcher Christian Cooper. Filing a false police report is a crime nationwide; however, advocates for this ordinance say that it goes a step further by making people accountable for the calls they make to law enforcement.
“Racist false reports put people in danger and waste resources,” CAREN Act co-author Matt Haney tweeted about the proposal.
The idea has gained traction in Los Angeles, too, and it was brought up in New York back in 2018, after state Sen. Jesse Hamilton had the cops called on him while he was campaigning in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, because a woman didn’t appreciate his criticism of President Trump.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/san-francisco-s-proposed-caren-act-would-make-racist-911-calls-illegal/ar-BB16v7tt?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=DELLDHP
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