A video of a white woman threatening to call the police on an Asian man for walking an unleashed dog has gone viral on social media this week.
What happened: The incident, which occurred in New York City, saw the woman lure the animal onto a busy highway to prove her point — while allegedly telling its owner to go back to his “own country.”
- The video starts with the woman already complaining about the unleashed dog. She appears to speak to another woman, who stands up for the dog owner. “Have you never heard of a leash in the city?” the first woman asks. “We’ll wait for the police to clear it up.”
- The man, who was filming the encounter, tries to get her to repeat what she allegedly told him earlier. “Which country should I go back to, Karen? Say it,” he says. “Cat got your tongue?”
- The woman suddenly claps her hands and tries to lure the dog onto the street. She fails to do it the first time but succeeds in a later attempt, which forces the man to chase his pet.
- The bystander calls the woman out for her behavior. “You’re actually instigating a dog to go to the middle of a highway? What kind of problem do you have, lady?” she asks. “You insult someone of Asian descent … Why don’t you go back [to] where you came from? Who are you? Leave people alone.”
- The video ends with the woman ultimately spotting a New York Police Department (NYPD) patrol car. She approaches the vehicle, but it’s unclear whether anything has been settled.
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What people are saying: The video was first posted on Reddit and has drawn mixed reactions from users, but many seem to agree that the woman’s actions were problematic.
- “There’s a way to tell someone to put a leash on their dog. This isn’t it,” one user commented.
- Another user wrote, “Seriously. People who don’t obey leash laws are the worst. They’d have been 100% in the wrong here but this lady HAD to one-up them by being an insufferable, racist a**hole.”
- One user noted that they have seen her “everywhere.” A YouTube commenter appeared to support this claim, saying she is “the same Karen harassing skateboarders [a] few times before.”
- New York City’s Department of Sanitation requires dogs to be put on a leash in public or “in any open or unfenced field abutting a public place.” The leash must be under six feet and violators must pay a fine between $200 and $400.
NextShark has reached out to NYPD which could not determine the exact time and location of the incident.
Featured Image via tefunka
