A viral video showed a New York City hospital employee trying to steal a rental bike from a group of young Black men.
The Saturday tweet shows a white woman in NYC Health + Hospitals scrubs arguing with a young man over a Citi Bike he claims he has already rented. The man holds the bike as the woman screams, “Please help me.”
NYC Health+Hospitals runs Bellevue Hospital.
A receipt for the bike was later shared with NBC New York by a lawyer for the woman, who claimed it proved his client had paid for the rental.
Strange events may have occurred before the start of the minute-and-a-half video, but neither the young man nor the woman in the uploaded clip appears to have been touched or verbally threatened.
The woman attempts to push the man off the bike at one point by using her body after removing her work ID badge.
“This is my bike. It’s on my account,” the man holding the bike says.
Another person on the video claims the woman is faking her tears, but she also appears to be crying.
“You’re acting,” The man who is videotaping says. “She’s fake-crying. Stop fake-crying.”
“You’re acting,” the man recording the video says. “She’s fake-crying. Stop fake-crying.”
Comrie eventually steps away from the bike and the video stops.
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) May 19, 2023
A bystander can be seen attempting to step in at one point. After about a minute, the woman gets off the bike, and the camera stops rolling.
Bellevue Hospital, run by NYC Health + Hospitals, did not release the woman’s name. The day after the video was posted, Bellevue apologized and said it was investigating the incident. Tuesday’s update from the hospital described the video as “disturbing.”
“The provider is currently out on leave and will remain on leave pending a review,” the hospital’s statement Tuesday told. “As a health system, we are committed to providing an environment for our patients and staff that is free from discrimination of any kind.”
— NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue (@BellevueHosp) May 16, 2023
By Wednesday afternoon, the video had received over 40 million views on Twitter, with many users highlighting the danger that the young Black men might be falsely accused of wrongdoing in circumstances involving white women.
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Ben Crump, a civil rights lawyer, was one of many who tweeted the video and left comments.
Crump claimed, “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!”
When NBC New York attempted to contact the woman at her Brooklyn apartment, no one picked up the phone or gave a response.
The man who posted the video did not immediately answer an inquiry for comment.
Emma is a Master of Science candidate at the California Institute of Technology. Since approximately four years ago, she has been a freelance writer, producing content for newspapers, magazines, blogs, and the internet