The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a new piece of legislation making racially motivated calls to 911 illegal.
The Caution Against Racially and Exploitative Non-Emergencies Act was first introduced in July and passed on Tuesday, according to ABC 7. Also known as the CAREN Act, it’s name plays on the meme of using the name “Karen,” referring to women who commit acts in public that are considered racist, such as calling the police on black people for noncriminal activities.
“The CAREN Act will expand the definition of a protected class in San Francisco to prevent false emergency calls with the specific intent to discriminate against a person or otherwise infringe the person’s rights or cause the person specified harms on the basis of the person’s race, color, ancestry, national origin, place of birth, sex, age, religion, creed, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, weight, or height,” the board said in a press release.
The legislation is meant to prevent incidents like the one this May in New York City when Amy Cooper, a white woman, called the police and falsely claimed that she was being threatened by “an African American man.” The man in question, Christian Cooper, of no relation, was bird-watching and had asked Amy Cooper to put her dog on a leash because it was required in that area of the park.
On the West Coast, one couple called the police on a black man in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights neighborhood after they found him writing “Black Lives Matter” in chalk in front of his home.
“When law enforcement responds to non-emergency calls as a result of the caller’s prejudice, discriminatory views, and racial bias, it diverts resources away from actual emergencies to the unnecessary policing of people of color,” according to the press release. “This is another form of racial violence instigated against people of color that causes further mistrust between communities of color and law enforcement.”
The CAREN act joins a growing body of anti-racist and anti-discrimination legislation that has been introduced this year. In August, the Minneapolis City Council announced a proposal to abolish the police, as many other cities, such as New York City, have announced plans to reallocate some funds away from their police departments in order to fund other public programs.
On the federal level, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Barbara Lee introduced the Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2020, a bill meant to rectify disparities between white and minority health outcomes in addition to establishing a “Law Enforcement Violence Prevention Program” that would “take a public health approach to combating police brutality and violence.”
Violators of the CAREN act will be subject to pay at least $1,000 in damages, plus attorney fees.
