Source: Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office
Listen: We joke a lot about Karens. When it comes to the subject of white people and their abject inability to stop minding Black people’s business, the humor nearly writes itself. But there’s a reason these stories are important to report however we choose to report and post about them: Karens are dangerous.
When taken to an extreme, the racist and invasive actions of Karens and their Dilbert male counterparts— which involve deciding a Black person or persons don’t belong in a certain area and policing them accordingly—put Black people in danger. They potentially put us in life-threatening danger when they call 911 on us for simply existing while Black, and even more so when they arm themselves to take non-existent matters into their own hands. That’s how Amaud Arbery ended up murdered. It’s why Trayvon Martin is dead. It’s why FedEx worker D’Monterrio Gibson was shot at by white men while trying his best to mind the business that literally pays him.
Speaking of Gibson, a similar case to his has come out of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, where a white woman was taken into custody by the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office last week after she followed a Black newspaper delivery worker and held her at gunpoint.
From Fox Carolina:
According to deputies, when they arrived at the scene, the victim told them she was delivering newspapers around the Town of Rock Springs neighborhood when she noticed a driver, later identified as Mary Holmes, staring at her. The victim reported that she continued to deliver newspapers and eventually left the neighborhood, where Holmes pulled up next to her. The victim told deputies that she asked Holmes if she could help her, and the driver responded, “No you can’t.”
The victim told deputies that Holmes continued to follow her into the next neighborhood she went in, so she turned around, where Holmes confronted her and pulled out a gun, but the magazine fell out of it. The victim said she then left the area and contacted law enforcement.
Deputies stated that as they were talking with the victim, Holmes’ boyfriend called 911 and reported that she had been following someone she believed was stalking the neighborhood.
Deputies met with Holmes, and she stated that she was terrified after seeing a vehicle driving through her neighborhood that “didn’t belong there.” She added that someone had broken into a neighbor’s home a month ago, so she was scared it would happen to her. Holmes said she pulled out the gun in “fear for her life” but admitted she was in the wrong for continuing to follow the vehicle.
Source: ‘Karen’ Arrested After Holding Black Woman Delivering Newspapers At Gunpoint In South Carolina
