Physicians Assistant yelling “HELP ME” while stealing a CitiBike ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I’m being radicalized by this thread. If this is truly where we have come to as a society I feel like I need to do something to right the ship.

+ 1. But it’s impossible. PP has posted the screenshot showing him blocking the reader, compelling proof that he had not rented the bike, you hear the bike unlock, she does not cry but one of his friends boots about “fake tears,” and a different person at the end uses a slur for disabled.

That is the video. That is what we have.

But posters here are throwing in hot emotionally manipulative garbage with their own actual fake tears alluding to actual lynchings with “strange fruit” and being so grateful - prayer hands pressed together all y’all - that no one died.

Posters and those gleeful over this don’t want people to look at things reasonably, they want a pound of flesh and to put teeth into stereotypes that they think will maybe benefit them. There isn’t much defending it.

[Anonymous]

This poor woman. Oh well, one more new Republican voter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like I’m being radicalized by this thread. If this is truly where we have come to as a society I feel like I need to do something to right the ship.

+ 1. But it’s impossible. PP has posted the screenshot showing him blocking the reader, compelling proof that he had not rented the bike, you hear the bike unlock, she does not cry but one of his friends boots about “fake tears,” and a different person at the end uses a slur for disabled.

That is the video. That is what we have.

But posters here are throwing in hot emotionally manipulative garbage with their own actual fake tears alluding to actual lynchings with “strange fruit” and being so grateful - prayer hands pressed together all y’all - that no one died.

Posters and those gleeful over this don’t want people to look at things reasonably, they want a pound of flesh and to put teeth into stereotypes that they think will maybe benefit them. There isn’t much defending it.

I don't feel radicalized and this isn't going to turn me Republic or something, but it's very, very unfortunate. I am most horrified not by this thread but by the people on Twitter and in the media who are alleging all kinds of things about this woman even though, after viewing the videoing and figuring out what is happening with the bike rental, I am convinced none of it is accurate. I have seen tweets calling her a white supremacist, every headline calls her a thief and/or racist, etc. But watching the video, it's just exceedingly clear that's not what it is.

My main take away from this is that I need to be extremely careful about how I respond to something like this in the world. No responding emotionally. Head down, walk away. Do not assume that anyone will understand the context of the situation, or that you will have any opportunity to explain that context. Assume people looking at a video of the situation will go into it assuming you are a bad actor. Just don't engage, walk away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet it was the only bike available on the street, and she hadn’t realized he had already booked it at the very beginning, and tried to get away with taking it from him before thinking through the stupidity of her behavior. She’ll be lucky if she still has a job tomorrow.

I’m following I’m following the Hospital’s Twitter feed to see if they update her employment status.

Why would they fire her over an argument in a viral video or publicly say anything? She’s in a union. Not gonna happen.

There was never an argument over who reserved the bike. Maybe at first she didnt realize it was already assigned. Once she knew she didn’t have a bike reserved, she went directly to “HELP ME HELP ME” bs stuff we know gets black guys arrested and killed.
Terrible reaction, behavior and judgement on her part.

I see a woman being physically prevented from leaving by a larger, stronger man, and prevented from scanning a QR code on her phone, which she has out. I don’t see anything consistent with a claim that she was trying to steal a bike that someone else had rented.

The QR code isn’t on her phone. It’s on HIS.

Are you not very bright or just racist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet it was the only bike available on the street, and she hadn’t realized he had already booked it at the very beginning, and tried to get away with taking it from him before thinking through the stupidity of her behavior. She’ll be lucky if she still has a job tomorrow.

I’m following I’m following the Hospital’s Twitter feed to see if they update her employment status.

Why would they fire her over an argument in a viral video or publicly say anything? She’s in a union. Not gonna happen.

There was never an argument over who reserved the bike. Maybe at first she didnt realize it was already assigned. Once she knew she didn’t have a bike reserved, she went directly to “HELP ME HELP ME” bs stuff we know gets black guys arrested and killed.
Terrible reaction, behavior and judgement on her part.

I see a woman being physically prevented from leaving by a larger, stronger man, and prevented from scanning a QR code on her phone, which she has out. I don’t see anything consistent with a claim that she was trying to steal a bike that someone else had rented.

This is the wildest claim made by anyone in this thread. The video doesn't remotely show that and she's free to leave whenever she wants, like she does at the end.

He’s physically holding the bike.

JFC. She’s free to leave. On her own two feet. Not on the bike he paid for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just rewatched the video, and I am even more skeptical of the narrative that she stole the bike or that she was fake crying. There are lots of ways to interpret what is happening.

One thing I notice is that a lot of people are taking the things that the men say as the truth and the things she is saying as fake. One reason for this is that the video was taken by *and narrated by* the men. The men say to her "it's not your bike" so people assume it's not her bike. The man taking the video points at her and says her tears/crying are fake, so everyone has concluded it was fake. When she stops crying, he points this out and says that's how he knows it was fake, so people watching the video believe her cries were fake and that when she stops it's evidence that they were fake.

But here's what else I see: a pregnant woman on a bike while one man holds the bike in place, tells her that she can't take it, and no fewer than THREE of his friends surround her, one taking video of the situation, all of them saying repeatedly "it's not your bike" and telling her that she's lying, her cries are fake.

I am also not convinced her crying is "fake". Watching it, she is calling out with a flat affect "help, help" barely shouting. That can read as her calling for help or it can read as her trying to scare off the FOUR men who have surrounded her on this bike by trying to attract attention to her. At one point she does shut her eyes and kind of do this shake/sob thing, but it doesn't read as fake crying to me (I have a preschooler, I know what fake crying looks like). It reads like she's tired and frustrated.

When she gets off the bike, it does not read to me like she is giving up on her ruse/con to steal a bike. It looks like she's giving up because she has been outnumbered. That's different.

Maybe he did reserve the bike. But did he reserve it after she'd already sat on it? Did he reserve it while she was standing next to it and getting her phone out of her bag to reserve it herself? Everyone is acting like she walked up and stole this bike out from under him, but how? She's literally sitting on the bike when the video starts. How did she get on a bike that someone else was in the process of reserving.

You want me to believe that this pregnant woman saw a group of four men reserving bikes, thought "haha here's my chance", walked into the middle of their group and sat on a bike while a man was standing inches away reserving it, and tried to steal it from him? I'm sorry, but I don't think that happened.

The people 100% convinced this is a "Karen" who is stealing a bike and "weaponizing white tears" need to take a step back. This video doesn't show any of the stuff you say it does. It's actually very vague.

You are “skeptical” of the fake crying? ROFL. Oh, honey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet it was the only bike available on the street, and she hadn’t realized he had already booked it at the very beginning, and tried to get away with taking it from him before thinking through the stupidity of her behavior. She’ll be lucky if she still has a job tomorrow.

I’m following I’m following the Hospital’s Twitter feed to see if they update her employment status.

Why would they fire her over an argument in a viral video or publicly say anything? She’s in a union. Not gonna happen.

There was never an argument over who reserved the bike. Maybe at first she didnt realize it was already assigned. Once she knew she didn’t have a bike reserved, she went directly to “HELP ME HELP ME” bs stuff we know gets black guys arrested and killed.
Terrible reaction, behavior and judgement on her part.

I see a woman being physically prevented from leaving by a larger, stronger man, and prevented from scanning a QR code on her phone, which she has out. I don’t see anything consistent with a claim that she was trying to steal a bike that someone else had rented.

The QR code isn’t on her phone. It’s on HIS.

Are you not very bright or just racist?

So the problem you have is that you literally don’t understand the process of how the bikes are rented. Well, you have countless, endless problems, but that’s one.

[Anonymous]

NP. I saw the video (or part, not sure) this morning and just thought she was a b-tch. Then I read this entire thread (wanting so badly to watch the video again, but waiting until after I’d finished the thread because I have a lot of spare time run, obvs!), then rewatched and now think she’s been extraordinarily maligned. This was fascinating and such an engrossing modern witch trial!

(Unless she somehow was trying to get innocent boys killed by screaming for help while attempting to steal one of said boys’ Citibike. If that ends up being the truth, I’m going to have to re-examine my internal bias yet again with this video!)

[Anonymous]

Above NP - and I legit think she was a victim now! It’s mind-boggling and I’m fairly disappointed in myself for my initial impression.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet it was the only bike available on the street, and she hadn’t realized he had already booked it at the very beginning, and tried to get away with taking it from him before thinking through the stupidity of her behavior. She’ll be lucky if she still has a job tomorrow.

I’m following I’m following the Hospital’s Twitter feed to see if they update her employment status.

Why would they fire her over an argument in a viral video or publicly say anything? She’s in a union. Not gonna happen.

There was never an argument over who reserved the bike. Maybe at first she didnt realize it was already assigned. Once she knew she didn’t have a bike reserved, she went directly to “HELP ME HELP ME” bs stuff we know gets black guys arrested and killed.
Terrible reaction, behavior and judgement on her part.

I see a woman being physically prevented from leaving by a larger, stronger man, and prevented from scanning a QR code on her phone, which she has out. I don’t see anything consistent with a claim that she was trying to steal a bike that someone else had rented.

This is the wildest claim made by anyone in this thread. The video doesn't remotely show that and she's free to leave whenever she wants, like she does at the end.

He’s physically holding the bike.

JFC. She’s free to leave. On her own two feet. Not on the bike he paid for.

He had not yet paid for it. When the video starts the bike is docked, not checked out to anyone. At the :20 second mark, he moves his hand from the scanner to use his phone to check out the bike (this is when she grabs his phone -- she does it to try and prevent him from renting the bike she's on, it's dumb on her part and she should not have done it but it's also how you know that's when he rents the bike because until then he's holding his hadn't over the QR reader while holding his phone away from her with his other hand).

People got it into their heads that he had paid for the bike before the video started. He didn't. He scans the bike on his app during the video (at the :20 second mark) after she's already sitting on the bike. A bunch of people who are unfamiliar with how these bikes work have said things like "he reserved it" (you cannot reserve these bikes in advance, even if you are a member, that's not how the system works) or that he had started to rent it but not completed the transaction (no, it happens all at once -- you scan the QR code and it charges your phone/app, then the bike unlocks).

So she sits on the bike, then he blocks her from renting it, then he rents it himself, then he tells her and a bystander that the bike is "his".

He didn't steal the bike (it's a rental, he rented it) but he did snake it out from under her after she was on it. She did not sit down on a bike he'd paid for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe how many people have her back on this thread!

They can relate because they do the same shit. And she looks like them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet it was the only bike available on the street, and she hadn’t realized he had already booked it at the very beginning, and tried to get away with taking it from him before thinking through the stupidity of her behavior. She’ll be lucky if she still has a job tomorrow.

I’m following I’m following the Hospital’s Twitter feed to see if they update her employment status.

Why would they fire her over an argument in a viral video or publicly say anything? She’s in a union. Not gonna happen.

There was never an argument over who reserved the bike. Maybe at first she didnt realize it was already assigned. Once she knew she didn’t have a bike reserved, she went directly to “HELP ME HELP ME” bs stuff we know gets black guys arrested and killed.
Terrible reaction, behavior and judgement on her part.

I see a woman being physically prevented from leaving by a larger, stronger man, and prevented from scanning a QR code on her phone, which she has out. I don’t see anything consistent with a claim that she was trying to steal a bike that someone else had rented.

The QR code isn’t on her phone. It’s on HIS.

Are you not very bright or just racist?

Real question: do you know what a QR code is?

The QR code is on the bike. It's on a screen in the middle of the handlebars. You use your phone to read the QR phone with your app, and that is what unlocks the bike and charges you account.

At the beginning of the video, he is standing next to the bike covering the QR code screen with his hand. The woman is on the bike with her hand on the handle bars. The only part of the bike he is touching is that spot where the QR code is. You need to scan that code to rent the bike.

At the :20 second mark, you can see in the corner of the screen that he moves his hand while she is putting her ID away in her bag and adjusts her headphones (so her hands are occupied). Then you hear a "chunk and chime" sound -- that's the sound the bike makes when it is unlocked. He has just used his phone to unlock the bike she is sitting on, and he was covering the QR code up until that moment to prevent her from renting it.

At that point she grabs his phone (bad idea, she shouldn't have done this) but this is actually evidence that he just unlocked the bike. Earlier in the video, he's holding his phone in his right hand, away from her, while covering the screen with his left hand in front of her. The only reason she is able to grab his phone is because he's moved it in towards the bike to unlock it.

He unlocks the bike using his phone after she is already sitting on it. The QR code is on the bike, not his phone. It is only after this that he starts saying that it's his bike and that he paid for it. Prior to that, he has not paid for it and she is the one sitting on the bike.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't believe how many people have her back on this thread!

They can relate because they do the same shit. And she looks like them.

If by "do the same shit" you mean sometimes rent bikes to ride places, and therefore know how bike rentals work and can see from the video the the guy only rents the bike after she sits on it and after he has blocked her from renting the bike by blocking the QR screen, then yes, I have her back because I "do the same shit."

[Anonymous]

This situation is so crazy that I have started to wonder if it's some kind of psychological experiment planned by grad students at Columbia or something.

The boys in the video know that he didn't rent the bike until after she was sitting on it. They know he was covering the QR screen to prevent her from renting it. But they took this video, which shows that, and claim it depicts her fake crying while trying to "steal his bike." They know this is not what happened. I believe they think she was fake crying, but they know she wasn't stealing the bike. They know he unlocks the bike while she's on it. A lot of commenters don't get this because they'd not' know how the bikes work. But the boys know.

But simply by framing this video as "woman weaponizes tears while stealing kid's bike" a bunch of people are seeing that in this video even though that's not what is happening. It's a testament to the power of framing, preconception, and bias. It's nuts!

If this isn't some kind of grad student experiment, it is soon to be featured in a grad student paper on how race, gender, and bias can impact the brain's ability to perceive events, make people see and remember things that did not happen, etc. It is a crazy case study.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet it was the only bike available on the street, and she hadn’t realized he had already booked it at the very beginning, and tried to get away with taking it from him before thinking through the stupidity of her behavior. She’ll be lucky if she still has a job tomorrow.

I’m following I’m following the Hospital’s Twitter feed to see if they update her employment status.

Why would they fire her over an argument in a viral video or publicly say anything? She’s in a union. Not gonna happen.

There was never an argument over who reserved the bike. Maybe at first she didnt realize it was already assigned. Once she knew she didn’t have a bike reserved, she went directly to “HELP ME HELP ME” bs stuff we know gets black guys arrested and killed.
Terrible reaction, behavior and judgement on her part.

I see a woman being physically prevented from leaving by a larger, stronger man, and prevented from scanning a QR code on her phone, which she has out. I don’t see anything consistent with a claim that she was trying to steal a bike that someone else had rented.

This is the wildest claim made by anyone in this thread. The video doesn't remotely show that and she's free to leave whenever she wants, like she does at the end.

He’s physically holding the bike.

JFC. She’s free to leave. On her own two feet. Not on the bike he paid for.

He had not yet paid for it. When the video starts the bike is docked, not checked out to anyone. At the :20 second mark, he moves his hand from the scanner to use his phone to check out the bike (this is when she grabs his phone -- she does it to try and prevent him from renting the bike she's on, it's dumb on her part and she should not have done it but it's also how you know that's when he rents the bike because until then he's holding his hadn't over the QR reader while holding his phone away from her with his other hand).

People got it into their heads that he had paid for the bike before the video started. He didn't. He scans the bike on his app during the video (at the :20 second mark) after she's already sitting on the bike. A bunch of people who are unfamiliar with how these bikes work have said things like "he reserved it" (you cannot reserve these bikes in advance, even if you are a member, that's not how the system works) or that he had started to rent it but not completed the transaction (no, it happens all at once -- you scan the QR code and it charges your phone/app, then the bike unlocks).

So she sits on the bike, then he blocks her from renting it, then he rents it himself, then he tells her and a bystander that the bike is "his".

He didn't steal the bike (it's a rental, he rented it) but he did snake it out from under her after she was on it. She did not sit down on a bike he'd paid for.

Thank you for the detailed description of how transactions with these bikes work. That adds a lot of context to the video.

She came off as overdramatic and ended up looking ridiculous but it’s also very rude to rent a bike someone is already sitting on. ESH