San Francisco passes CAREN Act

ABC 7 San Francisco

Now this is the common sense criminal justice reform approach we have all been begging for.

"San Francisco supervisors unanimously voted on Tuesday to pass the Caution Against Racially and Exploitative Non-Emergencies (CAREN) Act that makes racially-motivated phone calls to 911 illegal.

The name is a clear nod to the online moniker "Karen" often used to describe the behavior of a middle-aged white woman acting entitled or demanding.

Plenty of videos have gone viral showing people making false accusations towards people of color, escalating the situation by calling the police. The public tends to see these calls as racially motivated, bringing up questions of whether they would be penalized for filing false police reports. This act is an effort to deter emergency calls of this nature and make justice for those who are wrongly accused in these instances of bias.

"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," according to a press release.

The act would accommodate a civil cause of action for the victim of discrimination to recover damages of at least $1,000 in damages plus attorney fees.

Let me think what will happen in real life here for a second--people won't call 911 for fear of triggering a civil lawsuit = crime will skyrocket to levels not seen since Chaz in Portland.