Karen Calls Cops on Men for Shoveling Snow While Black

Kalyn Womack
·3 min read
8.3k
Screenshot: Gregory McAdory via TikTok (Fair Use)
Screenshot: Gregory McAdory via TikTok (Fair Use)

The list of things Karens call the cops for when it comes to Black people just keeps getting longer and more baffling. The latest addition to the list is shoveling snow. According to The Daily Beast, two Black men shoveled a lady’s sidewalk (for free) and she came outside threatening to call the police.

It’s kind of a routine thing to peek outside your window after a snow storm waiting for the boys with the shovels or snowplows to come offer their labor. Apparently, this Karen didn’t appreciate that help. Gregory McAdory and his friend have a snow removal business in Rockford, Illinois, per the report. The two had gone to shovel their friend’s driveway Feb 17th and afterwards they decided to move on to clear the sidewalk in front of the neighbor’s house. McAdory told The Daily Beast the owner of the house suddenly came outside fussing about their act of service.

Read more

On cue, he took a TikTok video showing the ridiculousness which captured the Karen pulling snow with her shovel back on to the freshly shoveled sidewalk.

“Are you seriously mad because we cleaned off your sidewalk? We’re helping you,” McAdory says behind the camera. The woman then throws her shovel on the ground and pulls out her phone appearing to call 911.

“They’ll come faster if you say there’s two n—gers over here,” McAdory says in the video. The woman proceeds to tell the police, “These guys are African American. I don’t get along with them.”

Read more about the incident from The Daily Beast:

“I have an emergency,” she says on the phone call, claiming that the two men were bothering her. “These two guys are African American, and I don’t get along with them. …They are making fun of me. See, they don’t have no respect!”

The Rockford Police Department provided a log of the service call to The Daily Beast, confirming it was placed at 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 17. The caller—whose name had been blocked out—reported disorderly conduct and an “urgent” need for help, the call dispatcher’s notes say.

According to the notes, “There is a [race redacted]/M there harassing her and she doesn’t want him there.”

Another comment says there are “2 [race redacted]/[males]. “She says they are disrespecting her and she wants them gone,” the notes say.

The call log says officers were on the scene for about 18 minutes. An administrator from the Rockford Police Department told The Daily Beast that a police report was not taken during the incident.

Eventually the two were told by the cops to avoid the drama and just leave the woman’s property alone, per a second TikTok video. However, McAdory told The Daily Beast he was only trying to do an act of kindness because the woman had complained about them shoveling their friend’s driveway before. The least they could do is help her out right?

Unfortunately, this is what happens when Black folks try to take the peaceful approach. Our kindness doesn’t mean anything to a racist who already perceives our existence as a threat.

Consider the 9-year-old young girl from New Jersey who used a homemade remedy to rid her neighborhood of invasive insects last year. A neighbor called the cops on her describing her as suspicious when in reality she was just trying to help save the environment.

After all of the chaos, I would have let this Karen shovel her own damn snow - whether two feet or two inches.

More from The Root

Sign up for The Root's Newsletter. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to read the full article.