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Kittywampus's avatar

I’m not someone who thinks that a 17-year-old should have the judgment of a mature adult. Of course not. But by golly, his name has not been made public, except perhaps his first name (if it really is Michael), and that was done by his own family. It was the kids who put that video out in the world. These days, no 17-year-old expects that a video is going to stay private on the Internet! They probably hope for some degree of virality. They are undoubtedly shocked by how big it became. But this is a FAFO situation, I’m afraid.

The Go Fund Me for the kid is an absolute cash grab. It’s going directly to the family, not to an attorney. There’s some vague verbiage on the GFM regarding a defamation suit. But given that the kid’s name isn’t public, there’s no way he can be defamed. Nor has Comrie or her lawyer said anything negative about him. If his name does become public, it will be because of his sister’s and/or mother’s actions. There’s no grounds for a defamation suit. The GFM money is going to be a windfall, pure and simple. Whether it’ll even go to the kid is an open question. The sponsor of the GFM is identified only by initials.

I’m a bleeding heart liberal when it comes to race. At least I was until seeing how the story unfolded. The amount of overt, hateful race grifting I’ve witnessed on Twitter is hair-raising. If anyone has put the kid in the limelight, it’s these grifters - Ben Crump, Tariq Nasheed, et al. It certainly wasn’t the pregnant physician’s assistant.

If I turn into a MAGA chud, this will be my origin story!

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Your name's avatar

If we want to be generous here, then I guess we could point out that riding e-bikes round the city isn't the worst way for underprivileged teenage boys without a lot of money to spend their free time. People - most of them probably working class - rely on those bikes for actual transport, though, and those kids taking the nicest bikes out of commission so they can basically game the system for cheaper fees isn't fair to those people. The pregnant hospital worker probably coming off a 12 hour shift wasn't having it, at least. Maybe the city needs to look into a program to fund these sorts of kids to get their own e-bikes? I dunno.

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Kathleen's avatar

I mean, they’re 17. They could get a fucking job.

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Mark's avatar

I agree, I don't fault them for trying to dock the bikes and use them again...but once it's docked it's free for someone else to rent

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Em G's avatar

I don't disagree but also what did children in NYC ever do before free ish e bikes?

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Kathleen's avatar

Part-time employment

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Skull's avatar

Wasn't NYC terrorized by crime until fairly recently? This is the exact demo of the people plaguing the city and other American cities with crime

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Petula's avatar

Agree with your overall sentiment, Kittywampus, but you don't have to actually name somebody to defame them. The question is whether the person would be identifiable by somebody who knows him or her, as I think would probably be the case here. On the other hand your second point is well taken - not at all clear what she has actually said or done to harm his reputation, rather any damage flows directly from witnessing what he did.

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