The word "Karen" is a moniker used to describe a middle-aged white woman who throws a tantrum and comes up with a sob story to get what she wants, or someone acting rudely or in an entitled fashion.
It is also someone who calls the police on black people, for asking that they leash their dog or for simply sitting on a park bench. A New Jersey woman who checks all of the above boxes is the latest "Karen" to be caught on video falsely accusing her African American neighbors of assault.
Fareed Nassor Hayat shared video footage of the confrontation between himself, his wife and the woman who was apparently harassing the couple over a stone patio they were building in their backyard and asking if they had a permit for it.
Falsely Claims She Was 'Pushed'
The two-minute clip shows a woman pacing around a street with a cellphone to her ear. The woman, identified as Environmental Protection Agency employee, Susan Schulz, can then be heard telling the police that a "gentleman pushed her off his property." The incident was filmed by Hayat's wife, Norrinda Brown Hayat, who claims Schulz has "been waiting two years to do this to us."
After Susan asks for an officer on the phone, she repeats that Hyatt attacked her. "I didn't put my hands on you, woman!" he says. Two other women from the neighborhood, who appear to be white, soon appear on their lawns nearby and Schulz starts pleading her case to them in the hopes of getting them on her side.
However, one of them tells Schulz that she saw the whole incident and the man did not lay a finger on her. Schulz then tries to show off a non-existent injury on her arm as proof of assault. "Don't go near me without a mask," the woman yells as she backs away from Schulz. Watch the full video below:
Facebook Post
Hayat captioned the video with a lengthy post noting that Schulz came onto his property three times within 30 minutes to demand that they show her a permit for the stone patio they were building on their lawn.
"When challenged about her flawed legal conclusions, assumption of right, her lack of agency over our home and our eventual demand that she leave our property immediately, Susan decided to call the police and make a false report of assault," Hayat wrote.
"She invoked centuries of brutality in her call to the police and sought to put her Black neighbors back in their place. She believed that we were required to answer her questions and smile while doing so. But to her surprise, her efforts were met by two proudly black human beings, parents, lawyers, law professors, activist, community members, neighbors, citizens and fighters, who refused to submit."
He also praised his white neighbors for standing up for him and his wife during the incident referring to it as "anti-racist ideology at work."
Protests Outside Schulz's Residence
Hundreds of comments poured in with messages of support for Hayat and his wife and negative comments aimed at Schulz. The video was soon widely shared on Twitter as well, with several users posting what they believed to be Susan's full name, address and place of employment.
The day after the incident, a small group of protesters marched near Susan's home on Marion Drive, according to Twitter users in the area. They peacefully marched, chanting, "Hey-hey, ho-ho, your racism has got to go!"
A Twitter video of the protests shows Schulz waiting outside her residence and looking into her cellphone as the group of protesters march past her.
