Bye, BBQ Becky: Oregon Lawmakers Crackdown on Racially Based 911 Calls

Oregon lawmakers have cracked down on 911 calls made on people of color when those calls are made with improper racist intent.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown (D) signed House Bill 3216 into law during the 2019 session.¹ According to the new law, in legislative parlance, making racially charged calls with no actual basis is the act of unlawfully summoning a police officer. ² Under Oregon law, a victim may bring a civil action for damages against any person who summons the police to a location with the intent to unlawfully discriminate against another person, cause the person to feel harassed or embarrassed, cause her to leave a place where they are lawfully present, or damage their reputation in the community or hurt business opportunities.³

Effective January 1, 2020⁴, violators found guilty for unlawfully summoning a police officer will be charged a fine of $250. It does not end there, victims may also recover special damages (like emotional distress) and at the court’s discretion defendants may also be ordered to pay attorney’s fees.⁵

This law comes after several reports across the nation of instances where white people were calling the police on African Americans whilst engaging in everyday lawful activities. Most of these instances have been recorded by bystanders or the victims themselves and have gone viral.⁶ In April 2018, a manager at a downtown Philadelphia Starbucks called the police on Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson while they were waiting in the cafe to have a business meeting, resulting in their arrest.⁷ Thankfully, that manager was fired and the following month Starbucks closed stores nationwide for one day to provide racial bias training for all employees.⁸ In that same month a group of white male golfers called the police on five African American women at Grandview Golf Club in York, Pennsylvania for slow play, telling dispatchers that the only weapon they were carrying was “her mouth.” ⁹ It must be noted that all of the women were members of the club where they were playing.¹⁰ The police left after determining there was no credible threat. As a golfer, who has played at public and private courses alike, there is a certain level of decorum and respect that is required on the golf course. Calling the police over a disagreement over slow play is not exemplary course conduct!

“It’s illegal to have a charcoal grill in the park.”¹¹ That statement was made by Jennifer Schulte, whom the internet has since dubbed ‘BBQ Becky’ in viral memes, she called the police on a group of African Americans barbequing in the park in Oakland, California in 2018.¹² More recently, in July 2019 Christopher Cukor, a white YouTube employee called police on Wesly Michel, a black software engineer at Dictionary.com, when Michel was waiting on his friend inside the doorway of the San Fransico apartment building in which Cukor lived. ¹³ However, Cukor has since apologized for the incident in a post on Medium, claiming that the building has had trespassers before of “all colors” and that he felt that call was necessary because he feared for his “child’s safety, and that of the building.”¹⁴ Despite the apology, and claims that his phone call was not racially charged, this is one apology that a victim would be hard-pressed to accept.

Calling the police is a normal response to fearing for your safety. The problem is when the police are called for a baseless claim and it results in the humiliation of another person. One veteran Bay Area 911 dispatcher with 17 years experience, who had to respond to racist calls on a daily bases urges people to take a minute to think about the reason that they are calling before they dial.¹⁵ She asks callers to consider whether it is truly necessary to call the police on your neighbors who repeatedly park in front of your house because they’re black (on a city street where it was legal to park where they wanted), or because you see a woman pushing a shopping cart in front of your house (both calls that she or other dispatchers in the center have received).¹⁶

Going forward there will be no shortage of racial profiling or other racially charged instances. This is not the end. More calls will be made on African Americans for essentially “living while Black.” Racism is alive and less aversive than it has been in a long time in our current political climate. People now feel free to say things that a few short years ago would have never been said, and ignorance reigns free and tongues are not bitten in favor of political correctness. Now, tongues aren’t even bitten for the purpose of humane treatment in adherence to the Golden Rule. Despite this, this Oregon law makes me hopeful. Even though it may be a small flicker, hopefully, it serves as a new catalyst to light the embers and reignite the fight for equality in our nation. Nonetheless, this is definitely one legislative step in the right direction, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that more states will soon follow suit.

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1. Oregon State Legislature, https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2019R1/Measures/Overview/HB3216 (last visited, Aug. 17, 2019).
2. H.R. 3216, 80th Leg., Reg. Sess. (Or. 2019).
3. Id.
4. Oregon State Legislature, https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2019R1/Measures/Overview/HB3216 (last visited, Aug. 17, 2019).
5. H.R. 3216, 80th Leg., Reg. Sess. (Or. 2019).
6. Bill Hutchinson, From ‘BBQ Becky’ To ‘Golfcart Gail,’ List Of Unnecessary 911 Calls Made On Blacks Continues To Grow, ABC News (Oct. 19, 2018, 12:25 PM) https://abcnews.go.com/US/bbq-becky-golfcart-gail-list-unnecessary-911-calls/story?id=58584961.
7. Id.
8. Id.
9. Jamele Hill, Calling Police On Black Women At Golf Course Is Latest Example Of ‘White Fear Weaponized,’ The Undefeated (April 26, 2018) https://theundefeated.com/features/calling-police-on-black-women-at-golf-course-is-latest-example-of-white-fear-weaponized/; Hutchinson, supra note 6.
10. Id.
11. Hutchinson, supra note 6.
12. Id.
13. Rachel Sandler, White YouTube Employee Calls Police On Black Man Waiting For Friend At San Francisco Apartment Building, Forbes (July 9, 2019, 6:40PM) https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2019/07/09/white-man-calls-police-on-black-man-waiting-for-friend-at-san-francisco-apartment-building/#3ee350c762b5
14. Christopher Cukor, One Conversation, Two Histories — My Perspective On An Incident In A San Francisco Doorway, Medium (July 9, 2019) https://medium.com/@chriscukor/one-conversation-two-histories-my-perspective-on-an-incident-in-a-san-francisco-doorway-ad2a5a1701d.
15. Rachel Herron, I Used To Be A 911 Dispatcher. I Had To Respond To Racist Calls Every Day, Vox (Oct. 31 2018, 12:08 PM), https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/5/30/17406092/racial-profiling-911-bbq-becky-living-while-black-babysitting-while-black.
16. Id.