People are asking on social media if anyone knows who this racist Karen is.
Social media users are asking for some sort of justice after an Asian man in Brooklyn, New York filmed a confrontation he had with a Karen over a street parking spot she was saving for a friend by standing in said space.
Within seconds of the argument, it turned physical, the Karen reaching into his car, throwing two strong punches at the man.
And, it was all caught on camera.
Check out a copy of the now viral video below.
The video starts off presumably in the middle of the argument, the Karen and the man in a heated back and forth. They’re both in a stalemate, the Karen refusing to leave and the man unwilling to drive off.
In the first minute of the video it suddenly turns physical, the Karen violently punching the man’s camera twice, upset that she’s being filmed.
That’s literally assault and it’s caught on camera.
“Don’t record me,” she says, peeved off at his camera. “Don’t record me you f***ing Chinese.”
“Can you get out of this spot so I can park?,” The man asks in vain.
“No,” she replies. “I’m not. I can do what I want to do.“
She literally can’t as Viewing NYC points out, “Not only is it illegal in NYC because of Municipal Code 4-08(n)(7), it creates unnecessary conflicts”
NYC 4-08 (N)(7) says,
“It shall be unlawful for any person to reserve or attempt to reserve a parking space, or prevent any vehicle from parking on a public street through his/her presence in the roadway, the use of hand-signals, or by placing any box, can, crate, handcart, dolly or any other device, including unauthorized pavement, curb or street markings or signs in the roadway.”
The rest of the video is the man and the Karen jawing back and forth at each other.
At several points the Karen stops to get the support of passerbys.
One stranger backs her up, telling the man that, “It’s a New York thing…” to save a parking spot for someone else with their body.
At 1:45 we clearly hear the Karen say, “Shut the ***k up, go back to….Go back to China,” a clear dig at the man’s Asian heritage.
Her racist statement comes on the heels of a compilation of hate crime data that found that, “anti-Asian hate crime increased by 339 percent last year compared to the year before, with New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities surpassing their record numbers in 2020.”
Racist statement aside, this lady was clearly in the wrong for saving a parking spot without a car.
It’s not clear what happened after the video, if he ended up getting the spot or if he just drove off.
Those disgusted on social media are asking anyone in the know to ID this woman to effectively cancel her.
As many pointed out on Reddit and elsewhere, situations like this are often a case of choosing your battles.
You may somehow get the parking spot, and rightfully so, but, at what cost?
You may return to your car with a big fat scratch or punctured tire.
As humbling as it sounds, the best tactic to take is to immediately cut “your losses” and find another parking spot.
