A New York City hospital employee was placed on leave after a viral video appeared to show her attempting to take a rental bike from a group of young Black men garnered millions of views online.
The incident, which was first posted to Twitter Saturday, appears to show a white woman in NYC Health + Hospitals scrubs arguing with a young man over a Citi Bike that he says he’s already rented. The man has his hand on the bike while the woman screams “please help me.”
It’s unclear what happened before the minute and a half video began, but the young man does not appear to touch the woman in the posted clip nor does he appear to verbally threaten her.
At one point, the woman takes off her work identification badge and tries to push the man off the bike with her body.
“This is my bike, it’s on my account,” the man holding the bike said.
She also appears to cry, although another person on the video accuses her of faking it.
“You’re acting,” the man recording the video said. “She’s fake crying. Stop fake crying.”
At one point in the video a bystander can be seen attempting to intervene to help resolve the dispute. About a minute into the video, the woman steps away from the bike and the recording stops.
The woman in the video was not identified by Bellevue, but the hospital apologized in a statement the day after the video was posted and said it was reviewing the incident. In a followup Tuesday, the hospital called the video “disturbing.”
“The provider is currently out on leave and will remain on leave pending a review,” the hospital’s Tuesday statement said. “As a health system, we are committed to providing an environment for our patients and staff that is free from discrimination of any kind.”
The video has been viewed on Twitter more than 40 million times by Wednesday afternoon, with many social media users pointing out the risk placed on the young Black men being accused of wrongdoing in situations against white women.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump was among many who posted the video and commented on Twitter.
“She grossly tried to weaponize her tears to paint this man as a threat,” Crump wrote. “This is EXACTLY the type of behavior that has endangered so many Black men in the past!”
NBC New York attempted to reach the woman at her apartment but no one answered at the woman’s Brooklyn home or returned calls for comment.
The man who posted the video online did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment.
Janhvi Bhojwani contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
