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Karen tries to steal Citi Bike from Black males in NYC

Source: Twitter

Perhaps the recent vigilante subway killing and the delayed response from law enforcement have emboldened other white people to also take the law into their own hands at the expense of Black people.

That certainly may have been the case recently when a pregnant white woman starring in a now-viral video appeared to try to steal a bicycle from a group of young Black males, one of whom claimed he had already rented it as part of a popular bikesharing program in New York City.

Now, social media sleuths claim to have identified the white woman’s name — Sarah Jane Comrie — in an effort to hold her accountable for the would-be thievery and all-out Karening outside of Bellevue Hospital in the Kips Bay neighborhood of the east side of Manhattan.

In addition to the brazen attempted theft, the white woman, dressed in hospital scrubs, could be seen on video first antagonizing the Black male before pretending to cry in an attempt to weaponize her whiteness and cast herself as a victim.

In case you missed it, the minute-and-a-half-long clip opens with the white woman repeatedly yelling “help” without appearing to be distressed in the least while she and a Black male both hold onto a bike that is still docked at a Citi Bike station.

“This is not your bike,” the male can be heard saying through laughter.

She keeps yelling for help even though it’s clear she is not in harm’s way.

She then snatches the male’s phone before he grabs it back — a likely crime — and continues to yell for help as the two jockey for the bicycle he said he already paid for.

When a white man wearing the same scrubs as the white woman approaches and addresses the “guys” only, the white woman covers her face with her hand and begins to act like she’s crying.

“You’re not crying,” a voice from the group says with derision.

The white man is shown getting on his phone to apparently call for help while also trying to intervene as the white woman begins to convulse as if she was sobbing.

“You an actor,” someone in the group tells her.

“Stop fake crying,” another says.

Finally, the white man suggests she just take another one of the many bikes also docked at the station, to which she quickly responds, “I will.”

That’s when the crying act ceased.

“Not a tear came down, miss,” someone in the group says, prompting the white woman to shrug.

Watch the Karen chronicles unfold below:

But that’s not all, folks.

The footage sparked widespread outrage at the white woman’s behavior, prompting people to look for clues about her identity in an effort to hold her accountable.

Some noticed that she was wearing a uniform that said “NYC Health + Hospitals,” which is New York City’s public healthcare system. A closer look at the video revealed she was wearing an ID lanyard around her neck that bore her name.

After Twitter did its thing, social media reports claimed the woman’s name is Sarah Jane Comrie.

A quick Google search of that name directs people to the NYC Health + Hospitals website, which lists Sarah Jane Comrie as a physician’s assistant.

On Saturday afternoon, NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue tweeted an apology for the incident.

“We have recently become aware of an incident that occurred off campus over the weekend and appears to involve one of our employees,” the tweet said in part. “We are sorry this happened and we are reviewing the incident.”

It remains unclear if the woman in the video will be held accountable for her apparent crime of swiping a stranger’s cellphone while at the same time, trying to criminalize Black males for simply existing and living their lives.

It was both a masterclass in white privilege and evidence that said white privilege can backfire under the right conditions.

This is America.

CLARIFICATION: This article’s headline has been updated to better reflect the story’s contents. 

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