A lawmaker in San Francisco has proposed a Bill that would outlaw false and racially motivated calls to emergency services.
The Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies Act or CAREN Act was put forward by Shamann Walton on Tuesday.
The acronym is a play on the slang "Karen" - a word that has risen in popularity on social media to describe an entitled, racist, white woman who target people of colour for doing everyday things such as bird watching or barbecuing.
Walton says the rise of smartphones have led to an increase of racial profiling and discriminatory incidents being shared on social media.
"The CAREN Act will make it unlawful for an individual to contact law enforcement solely to discriminate on the basis of a person's race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity," said Walton in a statement.
The Bill is similar to California state Assemblyman Rob Bonta's proposal to make discriminatory calls to emergency services a hate crime.
"If you are afraid of a black family barbecuing in the community park, a man dancing and doing his normal exercise routine in the bike lane, or someone who asks you to comply with dog leash laws in a park, and your immediate response is to call the police, the real problem is with your own personal prejudice," Bonta said in a statement.
Social media has gone wild at the proposed bill with some Twitter users calling it "the best thing to come out of 2020".
If passed, those who violate the Act could be fined a minimum of $1000.
