False 911 calls against Black people have cities considering ways to punish accusers

False 911 calls against Black people for barbecuing, birdwatching or, in a recent San Francisco case, writing a chalk message on their own property, have cost some bogus accusers their jobs, contracts and reputations after videos of the incidents went viral.

Now they could be fined, too, under legislation being considered in several states and cities, including San Francisco.

“There should be consequences for actions that threaten the freedom and safety of others,” said Sheryl Davis, director of the city’s Human Rights Commission, in a statement, reported The San Francisco Examiner.

“Calling the police on someone that you label as out of place, simply for being Black or a person of color in public, is just as dangerous as yelling fire in a crowded theater,” Davis said, according to the publication.

Laws against making false police reports are on the books, but Supervisor Shamann Walton of San Francisco says it’s time to single out race-based false 911 calls for extra punishment, KRON reported.

“At this point, because it’s leading to death and people being harmed, there should be some type of fine for using resources and leading to the harm of people from these phone calls,” Walton said, according to the station.

San Francisco is not the first to consider such penalties, The Washington Post reports.

Oregon and Washington have passed new laws raising penalties, while New Jersey and Minnesota are considering them, according to the publication.

And California State Assemblymember Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, has proposed a bill classing racially motivated 911 calls as hate crimes, The San Francisco Examiner reported.

A video posted Friday shows Lisa Alexander and her husband confronting James Juanillo, who is Filipino, as he chalked “Black Lives Matter” on a wall outside his San Francisco home, McClatchy News previously reported.

“This is not the way to do it,” Alexander, who is white, tells Juanillo and calls police to falsely report him for defacing property in the video. Police took no action.

Alexander later apologized for her actions after Birchbox, an online monthly subscription service that sends beauty products to customers, cut ties with her LaFace cosmetics company, McClatchy News reported. Her husband was fired from a wealth management company.

The incident followed countless others across the United States, including one in which a white woman called 911 to falsely accuse a Black man birdwatching in New York’s Central Park of threatening her. She also lost her job.

Videos of such incidents have become so common that internet slang has dubbed the callers “Karens.”

This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 8:07 AM with the headline "False 911 calls against Black people have cities considering ways to punish accusers."