From NBC News New York:
Bellevue Worker in ‘Disturbing’ Citi Bike Video on Leave Pending Review
The video has been viewed more than 35 million times since it was posted on Saturday
By Checkey Beckford • Published May 16, 2023 • Updated on May 16, 2023 at 1:21 pmThe employee, a physician’s assistant at NYC Health + Hospitals Bellevue, was seen shouting for help and eventually appeared to cry as she yelled at the group of Black teens for trying to take what she said was her bike. NBC New York’s Checkey Beckford reports.
The Manhattan healthcare worker who ignited a firestorm over widely-circulated video of her in a Citi Bike confrontation with a group of young Black men is out on leave and will remain on leave pending a formal review.
Calling the incident in the video “disturbing,” an NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue spokesperson said Tuesday that the provider seen screaming at the group was off duty and off campus at the time.
The video has been viewed more than 35 million times since it was posted on Saturday, with many blasting the hospital worker for potentially putting the young men’s safety at risk.
… The roughly 2-minute video starts with the woman, who is white, wearing hospital scrubs straddling a Citi bike as she screams for help, even though she doesn’t appear to be in danger.
“Help! Help me! Please help me,” she can be heard shouting loudly.
But the young Black man standing next to her repeatedly tells her, “This is not your bike,” stating that he just rented that Citi bike, as his friends stand beside him.
“This is my bike on my account, please move,” he tells the woman, to which she says, “Get off me.” …
It’s not clear what happened before someone started recording the fracas near East 30th Street and First Avenue in Kips Bay. Many, though, are blasting the woman, who works at Bellevue and is employed under an affiliation agreement with NYU.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump also released a statement, stating, ”This is unacceptable! A white woman was caught on camera attempting to STEAL a Citi Bike from a young Black man in NYC. She grossly tried to weaponize her tears to paint this man as a threat. This is EXACTLY the type of behavior that has endangered so many Black men in the past!"
No one answered at the woman’s Brooklyn apartment or returned calls for comment from NBC New York. A woman who lives in the same building appeared shocked that she shared a building with the woman seen in the video.
”It’s clearly like a Karen, a Central Park Karen," said the neighbor, referring to the May 2020 incident in which a woman walking her dog called 911 on a Black bird watcher.
The neighbor said the young men seen in the video could have ended up in jail.
“She thinks that she’s viewed as a victim because she’s white because that’s obvious in this America we all live in,” said the neighbor.
But another neighbor who knows the woman in the video said he believes the incident is being blown out of proportion.
From New York Post on Thursday:
NYC hospital ‘Karen’ paid for Citi Bike at center of viral fight with black man: lawyer
By Amanda Woods and David Propper
May 18, 2023 7:10am UpdatedThe lawyer for a Manhattan hospital worker accused of taking a Citi Bike from a young black man — who claimed that he paid for the two-wheeler — provided receipts that he says show she was the one who purchased the ride at the center of the viral incident.
The Bellevue Hospital employee— who was branded a “Karen” on social media afterward—rented the bike first, lawyer Justin Marino said in a statement to The Post Wednesday.
He also provided two Citi Bike receipts from May 12, which were timestamped just minutes apart.
The first receipt reviewed by The Post shows the bike being taken out before it was re-locked one minute later, which Marino said is the bike seen in the video.
The second receipt shows another bike being taken out a minute later from the same docking station and was the bike Marino said his client used to get home after being “heckled and pressured to find a new bike” by the group.
Of possible relevance from Associated Press a couple of years ago:
Scam uses swapped stickers to steal Citi Bikes
by: Associated PressPosted: Aug 7, 2021 / 05:23 PM EDT
NEW YORK — Citi Bike says it is aware of a scam in New York City in which thieves are switching the QR code stickers on rental bicycles in order to steal bikes unwittingly unlocked by customers.
The scammers wait for a renter to unlock a bicycle using the QR code, then ride away on the bike to which the code actually belongs, officials said.
Citi Bike spokesperson Jordan Levine says the company is working to address the problem, including upgrading the QR decals on its bikes. Each rental ride costs $3.
But a customer can be charged $1,200 if a bicycle they rent ends up lost or stolen.
The Citi Bike program is one of those We Now Can Once Again Have Nice Things amenities that New York City enjoyed during its early 21st century golden age when it had cracked down on crime. Urbanism and law-and-order go together like ham and eggs.
The future, however, now looks like you’d want to take a Ford F-350 to get around Manhattan.
