# "CAREN" law proposed in San Francisco

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caren-law-proposed-in-san-francisco/914762>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 8, 2020, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caren-law-proposed-in-san-francisco/914762 "2020-07-08T18:48:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caren-law-proposed-in-san-francisco/914762/1 "2020-07-08T18:48:59Z")

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CNN story: [https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/08/us/caren-act-911-san-francisco-trnd/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/08/us/caren-act-911-san-francisco-trnd/index.html)

The acronym stands for Caution Against Racially Exploitative Non-Emergencies, which is one of the more stupid forced acronyms I have ever encountered.

Also, isn’t calling in a false emergency report already against the law? Enforce that law and maybe you won’t need this one.

I’m not clear that SF is much of a hotbed of this sort of thing, seeing what progressives we all are. And there is already a state bill making the rounds that does the same thing. This proposed city law strikes me as publicity-seeking grandstanding for political gain.

Here is my favorite nonsense quote from the article:

> Though making a false police report is a misdemeanor or felony offense in many states, including California, accountability is lacking for making racially biased calls to law enforcement.

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**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\
**Post date:** [July 8, 2020, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caren-law-proposed-in-san-francisco/914762/2 "2020-07-08T22:20:46Z")

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My uninformed take on this is that it’s basically the difference between a regular crime and a hate crime. Making a false emergency report is bad. Making a false emergency report in hopes of getting a black (or other racial minority) person arrested or killed _specifically because of their race_ is worse.

Also, I really wish politicians would knock off the shitty acronym thing. It’s not clever.

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**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2020, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caren-law-proposed-in-san-francisco/914762/3 "2020-07-09T00:25:16Z")

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“What does that tell you?”  
“It tells me you really wanted it to come out to spell SHIELD”

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**Author:** ![Karen\_Lingel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karen_lingel/32/18649_2.png) [@Karen\_Lingel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karen_Lingel)\
**Post date:** [July 9, 2020, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caren-law-proposed-in-san-francisco/914762/4 "2020-07-09T03:48:32Z")

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I’d like to see a law against stigmatizing actual Karens.