‘Male Karen Tells Me I Don’t Belong Here’: Video Shows White Detective Getting Fresh with Black Woman; Things Change When She Refuses His Advances
A video of a white New Jersey police officer giving a Black woman a hard time for parking on a public street has gone viral on social media, showing the woman assertively defending her right to be there and forcing the officer to go about his business after she stood up for herself.
The footage, posted to TikTok on July 23 by creator baddiebk_ _ has amassed more than 1.4 million views, resulting in an embarrassing moment for the officer, who ended up with nothing but a reprimand for questioning the woman’s presence.
The highlight of the back-and-forth came when the officer boldly asked, “Why here?” to which the conscientious woman sharply replied, “Why here? It’s America.”
The man in the video, who later identified himself as “Detective Keller with the Elizabeth Police Department,” got off on the wrong foot with the woman when he suggested her presence was a problem, and then got put in his place after his police training failed to trip up the quick-witted woman.
A quick search of the internet revealed that the Elizabeth Police Department swore in 13 new recruits back in 2015, and among them was an officer by the name of Christopher Keller, however it’s not clear if this was the same man who confronted the young woman on the roadside, or whether Christopher Keller was still employed by the department.
The footage doesn’t show the woman directly, but Baddie’s TikTok videos reveal her as a striking young woman with curves and flowing black hair, offering a possible explanation for the officer’s undue interest, which led to the uncomfortable exchange.
The officer, who appeared to be wearing a wedding band, blocked a lane of traffic for more than three minutes, needlessly questioning the innocent woman, while seeming to want nothing more than to get to know her better.
She had her camera rolling before lowering her window halfway to speak to the officer, who was headed in the opposite direction when he stopped his cruiser alongside and asked what she was doing in his neighborhood.
Seated in an unmarked black Dodge with dark-tinted windows, the heavily tattooed officer kept his car parked in the middle of the road while questioning the woman.
The woman immediately turned the tables on the officer, accusing him of being “hostile,” and saying, “You just rolled up on me for no reason.”
The officer turned defensive.
“I’m asking you a simple question. What are you doing out here?” he asked, repeating what he said when he first pulled up.
The woman was terse: “I’m sitting in my car.”
Unsatisfied, the officer began suggesting the woman was up to something illegal even though he had no outward reason to believe so.
“Right, but this is the second day, same spot for over four hours, you’re sitting in the same spot,” he explained with a straight face, adding, “I live in the area, I want to know what’s going on?”
“OK, I’m sitting in my car,” she said again, unimpressed with his drama.
“Doing what?” Keller asked impatiently.
“Making TikToks, watching TikToks,” she said, answering quickly.
“Okay, where do you live?” — but here the woman drew the line.
“Why are you asking me that?”
Keller clarified, “Do you live in the area?”
“Yeah I do live in the area, so what’s the problem?”
Throughout the three-minute encounter, Baddie kept a calm, conversational tone, never raising her voice while clearly asserting her right to park there and landing a number of stinging verbal blows along the way.
Keller initially tried to outwit the woman with police interrogation tactics, but he was caught off guard by the woman’s brash refusal to accept that she had done anything wrong.
With the camera pointed back at him, the officer painfully struggled to match the woman’s calm energy, likely aware of the potential for the situation to become a full-blown mess on social media — which it did anyway.
As the lukewarm confrontation continued, the officer dug himself in deeper: “So, what’s your name?”
But the woman remained suspicious, saying again: “Why are you asking me this?”
“I introduced myself, I want to know who you are,” he said, even though he had not mentioned his name yet.
Confused, the woman asked “What’s your name?” — admitting that she might have missed it while talking over him.
“Detective Keller with the Elizabeth Police Department,” he said, identifying himself for the first time.
“OK,” she said as though waiting for the officer to get to his point. “Is there a problem?”
“I’m just asking you a simple question,” he explained.
But the woman’s instincts kicked in: “OK, I don’t feel like I have to answer you. Because I don’t know you.”
“I don’t know you either,” he said with no effect. “I’m just asking you a question.”
“OK, and I don’t feel like I have to answer you,” she said confidently.
The officer accused her of being in “the same spot for two days now,” but when the woman denied this, Keller claimed he saw her parked in the same spot a week earlier.
“Wow, so you’re watching me,” the woman exclaimed, putting him back on the spot.
“I’m not though,” he deflected. “I watch the area. I’m very observant to what’s happening in my area,” he said, adding, “I live right down the street,” which prompted the woman to politely go off.
“And I live somewhere in the area too. I don’t have to tell you where. OK. And you should be able to respect that. I’m not committing any crimes. You’re just being a detective.”
But the officer wouldn’t give up, and kept grinding for more information about her: “It’s a simple question,” he said again, but instead of getting the answers he wanted, he was met by a brick wall.
“I answered your questions multiple times,” the woman said. “I told you I’m sitting in my car. And what’s the problem?”
The officer then seems to acknowledge the woman’s innocence in the matter: “There is no problem, I’m just asking you what is going on?”
The woman explained that she often worked from her phone in the car, but the officer kept insisting she was suspicious for doing so.
She then told the officer that his continued demands were making her feel uncomfortable, saying, “I’m just a girl in my car, bro, OK? If I live in the area I can sit in my car.”
Wanting the last word, the officer continued to badger the woman.
“Why not sit in front of your house?” he asked.
The woman seemed stunned by the question, and told the officer where he could get off.
“Why do I have to sit in front of my house if I’m doing work on TikTok? If I’m working on TikTok, I can sit anywhere I want. I can go to the cafe and sit in front of a cafe and sit on the street if I want to sit on the street,” she insisted.
“OK, well, why don’t you?” he asked, suggesting she go to a cafe instead of sitting in her car.
“Why don’t I? So you’re telling me I’m not allowed to sit here?”
“I’m not saying that, but why here?”
“Why here?” the fed up woman asked. “It’s America. I can park whereever I want.”
His questioning shut down, the officer tried to save face by asking again, “What was your name?”
But the woman wasn’t having anymore of his nonsense.
“It doesn’t matter. You’re a detective. You can search my plates if you’re a detective.”
“I don’t want to,” he repeated several times after getting rejected. “I introduced myself. I just want to know what’s wrong with you,” trying to soften his stance.
The woman then repeats, “I don’t feel comfortable.”
The back-and-forth finally ended with the defeated officer driving off without issuing a citation after initially claiming the woman was acting suspiciously by sitting in a parked vehicle (while Black) and minding her own business.
After more than three minutes of needless questioning, the officer said: “Have a good day, OK? Enjoy yourself.”