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Notes -
Update on the Black Teens Versus Pregnant Nurse story.
This twitter thread seems like a reasonable summary. I know it's not entirely unbiased, but absent additional contradictory evidence, the story seems to basically check out like this:
Kids had checked out the ebikes for a ride, and docked them before the 45-minute "free" period ended, planning to undock them to resume riding. (This is apparently a pretty common practice?)
They're sitting on the bikes chilling, when Comrie, the pregnant nurse, approaches and asks to have one of the bikes.
The teens say no, unmoved by her appeals for consideration for her pregnancy.
She scans (checks out) a bike one of the kids is sitting on, and tries to take it.
The kerfluffle we saw on video ensues. The kids apparently filmed it with a legitimate fear that she would turn it into "gang of teens harasses pregnant white lady."
So basically, no one looks like an entirely innocent victim here. The kids were just hanging out in preparation to check out the bikes again, but since they were docked, you don't really get to "call dibs" on a bike you are not currently renting. Technically Comrie was entitled to take an available bike; the kids shouldn't have been squatting on them. They were also kind of jerks for not showing a little compassion for an obviously pregnant woman (their version is that if they'd given up the bike, one of them would have had to find some other way to get back to the Bronx).
That said, deciding "Screw you, I'm taking your bike anyway, get off" wasn't great behavior on her part, even if legally justified. I cut her more slack because apparently she just got off a 12-hour shift, and she was pregnant.
However, even if the teens were perhaps being inconsiderate and less than gentlemanly, the narrative that's basically portrayed them as ganging up on her and trying to steal her bike appears to be inaccurate.
There's a whole lot of people in this thread who don't understand that being in the wrong isn't a zero-sum game. Like you said, it's hard to tell if the woman actually acted like the teens claim she did (since they have every incentive to lie and all), but still. Assuming they are telling the truth, it sounds like everyone here acted poorly.
As I said, being in the wrong is not a zero sum game. They can be completely wrong in their actions, and she can be wrong in hers. I certainly am not saying that she was, because (as you, @Amadan and I all agree) they are likely to be lying just to save face. All I'm saying is that, if they are telling the truth, the nurse can be wrong without absolving them one bit.
I'm not trying to defend them, and I don't understand why you act like I am. I'm simply pushing back on the idea that to say the nurse acted poorly means that the kids are absolved for their actions.
Have you read about how the system works? And how they were camping the ebikes until all the meatbikes were taken so they could take the ebikes for free? Does that change your mind about her culpability? It did for me, but I admit I really didn't want to believe the pregnant nurse had done anything wrong.
Yes, I have. It doesn't change anything. It's still pretty rude to scan the bike that a kid is literally sitting on. As I've said repeatedly, the kids acted worse but that doesn't mean that her actions (as portrayed by the admittedly biased kids) were OK either.
If someone is pushing the buttons on the insert coin screen of a video game you want to play, there is nothing wrong with telling them to either play or move. They can respond oh my friend is making change but that buys no more then a minute.
But that isn't the equivalent to what she did. What she did is more like saying "play or move", then when they say "we're going to play in a while", saying "well you lose your chance, I'm playing right now" and shoving them aside to put quarters in the machine.
That's what should happen. Someone who responds to the choice being I'm not moving by physically moving the person out of the way and playing has done nothing wrong. They offered the first person there a fair choice and have a higher claim by right of them and the asset owner wishing to engage in trade. The party given the option can choose either one but anything other than playing is a default move choice.
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a) There is no evidence she shoved anyone aside, and the idea is unlikely.
b) Even if she did, that still does not describe behavior that is in any way wrong.
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It's the scissor statement story, shit they actually did it.
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