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A4 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 22 OcTOber 2020
San Francisco officials let people sue over racist 911 calls

By JANIE HAR Other places have moved
Associated Press to make placing racist 911
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — calls a hate crime. Cali-
Fed up with white people fornia's governor recently
calling 911 about people of signed a measure making
color selling water bottles, the crime a misdemeanor
barbecuing or otherwise punishable by jail time and
going about their lives, San a fine. New York approved
Francisco leaders unani- legislation allowing the vic-
mously approved hate tims of racist 911 calls to
crime legislation giving the sue.
targets of those calls the The San Francisco legisla-
ability to sue the caller. tion gives people the right
The Board of Supervisors to sue a 911 caller in civil
voted Tuesday on the Cau- court, and supporters hope
tion Against Racial and it will make some think
Exploitative Non-Emergen- twice before turning to
cies Act, also known as police. The discrimination
the CAREN legislation. It's need not be only racial;
a nod to a popular meme it can also be due to the
using the name "Karen" to person's sex, age, religion,
describe an entitled white disability, gender identity,
woman whose actions weight or height.
stem from her privilege, In this June 14, 2020, file photo, James Juanillo poses outside of his home in San Francisco. The legislation does not
such as using police to tar- Associated Press spell out the standards
get people of color. sor Shamann Walton, who white couple was criticized but very deliberately. The needed to sue. But it notes
All 11 supervisors signed on introduced the legislation on social media after video only thing that was missing that qualifying calls are
to the legislation, guaran- and is Black. was widely shared of them was a pinot grigio." those that caused the per-
teeing its passage, despite "I really want to emphasize questioning a Filipino Amer- Supporters of the legislation son to feel harassed or em-
criticism that the name is that 911 is not a customer ican stenciling "Black Lives say it is crushing to be con- barrassed; damaged the
sexist and divisive. It comes service line for someone's Matter" on a retaining wall fronted by police because person's reputation or busi-
amid a national reckoning racist behavior," he said. in front of his home in June. someone saw you as a ness prospects; or forced
on race sparked by the po- Walton was the only su- They later called police. threat, possibly as a crimi- the person from an area
lice killings of Black Ameri- pervisor to speak. Till was a James Juanillo said he nal or as not belonging. where they had a lawful
cans and instances where Black teenager beaten to chose yellow chalk to It's especially terrifying for right to be.
white people called for of- death in 1955 after accu- match the color of the Black people, whose en- Vic Vicari wrote that the
ficers to investigate people sations by a white woman house. counters with police could insensitive use of the name
of color. who later admitted to lying. When the couple ap- end in violence. "as a general purpose term
"We don't want what hap- In May, Amy Cooper, a proached him, they re- "This is not hyperbole," said of disapproval for middle
pened to Emmett Till in white woman, called 911 peatedly demanded to Brittni Chicuata, chief of age white women needs
1955, or the long history of from Manhattan's Central know if it was his home be- staff for San Francisco's Hu- to stop." Carynn Silva said
false accusations of black Park, falsely claiming that cause he was defacing pri- man Rights Commission. she loves the name her
men and boys in this coun- a Black man — who had vate property. "This is an established pat- mom gave her and called
try, due to weaponizing law politely asked her to leash "They tried to cast it as a tern reflected in the dis- it a racist term against
enforcement, to threaten, her dog — was threatening criminal scene," he said. "It parate treatment of Black white women. Caren Ba-
terrorize, and sometimes her. She has been charged was me calmly applying people and other people tides asked if the supervi-
even kill them, to ever hap- with filing a false police re- chalk, not spray paint, not of color in our city and in sor would want his name
pen again," said Supervi- port. In San Francisco, a in the middle of the night our country." mocked. q

Remains found in Tulsa search for 1921 race massacre victims

By KEN MILLLER grave," said Oklahoma —- has been depicted in
Associated Press state archaeologist Kary recent HBO shows "Watch-
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — At Stackelbeck. men" and "Lovecraft Coun-
least 10 bodies have been There were 10 coffins dis- ty."
found in an unmarked covered with what is pre- Forensic anthropologist
mass grave at a Tulsa cem- sumed to be one person in Phoebe Stubblefield, a
etery where investigators each coffin, Stackelbeck descendant of a survivor
are searching for remains said. She said further exam- of the massacre who is as-
of victims of the 1921 Tulsa ination is needed. sisting in the search, said it
Race Massacre, a state of- The massacre left an es- would take considerable
ficial said Wednesday. timated 300 mostly Black time to identify the remains
"What we were finding was Tulsa residents dead and and determine whether
an indication that we were 800 more wounded. The they were victims of the
inside a large area ... a massacre — which hap- massacre.
large hole that had been pened two years after The search began Mon-
Researchers and work crews look at items pulled from the excavated and into which what is known as the "Red day and is the second this
ground during a second test excavation and core sampling, several individuals had Summer," when hundreds year after an unsuccess-
Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2020, in the search for remains at Oaklawn been placed and buried in of African Americans died ful search in another area
Cemetery in Tulsa, Okla., from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. that location. at the hands of white mobs of the cemetery ended in
Associated Press
This constitutes a mass in violence around the U.S. July.q