'Permit Karen' calls cops on Black family for building a stone patio in their own backyard

Despite recent weeks unmasking a deluge of self-important Karens and Kevins across the country, it appears as though their chums simply can't stop themselves from flaunting their true selves. Seemingly oblivious to the current socio-political climate, a New Jersey woman—identified only as Susan—recently pulled a Karen on her Black neighbors when she called the cops on them after demanding proof that they were allowed to build a stone patio in their own backyard. When challenged about her entitlement and asked to leave their property, the woman falsely accused the homeowner of assault and in a last-ditch attempt, unsuccessfully tried to rally other neighbors against the Black family.

Fareed Nassor Hayat took to Facebook on Monday to post a video of the 'Permit Karen' in action and recounted the disturbing series of events that transpired. It has happened again. White entitlement and black hate embodied in Susan who lives on Marion Road and works at the EPA, called the police to lodge a false report of assault against me when told to leave our property, he wrote. Susan, aka "Permit Karen,” came onto our property three times within thirty minutes to demand to know if we had the proper permit to install a stone patio in our backyard, on the other side of the fence of her yard.

When asked if a permit was required by law, she said she didn’t know, but insisted we answer her questions and submit to her demands, or she would call the police to force us to stop improving our home, Hayat continued. He explained that they'd already learned through their independent research that a stone patio that small did not require a permit in Montclair, New Jersey, and that it was later "verified when building and safety arrived at our home to investigate her complaint."

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, activists, community members, neighbors, citizens, and fighters, who refused to submit.

Her efforts were also met by a collection of largely white neighbors, who refused to simply go along with her racist efforts or not stand up against her attempt to invoke the racist power of the state through police. Their efforts were antiracist ideology at work. Each neighbor declared to her and the police that she summoned, that she was a lie and no such assault occurred. She left our home, rejected and unfulfilled, yet still empowered to do future harm. To her Black Lives Don’t Matter when up against her presumed inalienable rights of whiteness. She did not see the flaw in her ways or apologize for her behavior. Her type, the racist, must be rejected and ostracized like she was today by Norrinda and I, but equally important, by our white neighbors here in Montclair and our white and non-white allies worldwide, Hayat concluded.

Speaking to WABC, Hayat spoke about how easily the situation could have gotten out of hand if responding police officers hadn't taken the time to understand the full picture. "If the police had come here and overreacted I could have been dead," he said. Hayat's wife Norrinda explained that it was the same fear that prompted her to film the encounter with Susan. "I filmed her because she started to play race tricks that endangered both my husband and my children," she said. "It's just grown increasingly intense, this desire to interrogate, deputize yourself to make sure I'm following the rules."

The couple revealed that Susan has been pulling such antics on them for two years, demanding answers for everything from the color of their house to the lights in their backyard. However, this time they felt enough was enough. "We don't want to wage war with our neighbors, we want to be in our patio in quarantine backyard and be at peace," said Norrinda. Following the incident, thousands rallied outside Susan's house in protest.