Jennifer Guilbeault, 23, shown on video assaulting Shohel Mahmud after he began reciting prayer in Arabic

A New York woman who pepper-sprayed a Muslim Uber driver while he was praying has been indicted by the Manhattan district attorney on hate crime charges.

Jennifer Guilbeault, 23, is shown in a surveillance video repeatedly pepper-spraying her Uber driver, Shohel Mahmud. The assault took place in August on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, near the corner of east 65th Street and Lexington Avenue, shortly after Mahmud began reciting a prayer in Arabic.

Guilbeault’s former employer, the public relations and marketing firm D Pagan Communications, wrote on X it is aware of her actions and “don’t condone this behavior”.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    I’m glad she’s been indicted for a hate crime, but will Uber compensate the driver in any way? Of course not. He’s not an employee!

    And if you click through to the surveillance video article, you see this:

    Mahmud acknowledged the ordeal has hurt him financially, as he is the breadwinner of his family who currently lives in Bangladesh.

      • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldM
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        14 hours ago

        Hate crimes, by definition, are not an attack only against an individual, but cause deliberate harm to an entire community.

        The crime is different, so they’re treated differently, of course. We also have different degrees of murder depending on the person’s motivation.

      • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        It’s treated differently because it is a different predictor of violence. I’m not a violent person (but, like most people, I could be brought to assault a person under the right circumstances), so as long as someone’s not terrorizing me or someone else, I probably won’t get violent. That’s not a big risk, but if all it took for me to get violent was someone exercising a different religion in front of me, I’d be a much bigger societal risk.

      • Lem Jukes@lemm.ee
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        13 hours ago

        Why are yall downvoting a question? Fr there’s no indication this was asked in bad faith. Are yall just morons?

        • Snapz@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          Yeah, sort of borderline “begs the question” here… A good indicator of sincerity in asking would be if OP of that question stuck around and actually engaged and thanked people that gave good answers - AFAIK they have not.

          So again, borderline.

          • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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            3 hours ago

            Sometimes I’ll ask a sincere question worded in a way that I didn’t realize implied anything, and get downvoted to hell. If anybody answers I’ll upvote, but I rarely want to stick around to explain why I don’t kick puppies or whatever.

        • stoly@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          There are people asking questions and there are people “asking questions” in an attempt to derail debate.

          • NeilBru@lemmy.world
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            12 hours ago

            Honest question: what is up for debate regarding the case? I think all the facts are clear, no?

            • stoly@lemmy.world
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              11 hours ago

              That’s correct, which is where my comments comes from. They aren’t curious about the definition of a hate crime, they are trying to insert doubt while feigning ignorance.

              • NeilBru@lemmy.world
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                9 hours ago

                Again, with sincerity: did the woman who perpetrated the assault or her attorney give any public statement re: her motive? I saw in the video linked to the article said that the attorney, when asked by this reporter, had no comment. Was there anything ever released or documented about why she snapped?

                What I’m getting at is did she attack him for being a man, a muslim, or a muslim and a man?

                Furthermore, it’s not clear to me if she’s being charged with “vanilla” assault and battery or if there’s a hate crime charge on top of it. This may be my own fault for reading too quickly.

                Nevermind that. I re-read the aricle.

                Guilbeault was officially charged in a state supreme court indictment “with one count each of Assault in the Second Degree as a Hate Crime, Assault in the Third Degree as a Hate Crime and Aggravated Harassment in the Second Degree”.

    • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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      10 hours ago

      Praying is not chanting. Somehow I doubt a Catholic saying a hail Mary would have ellicited the same response. It appears the DA agrees.

      As to what happened, he was driving the car with the two passengers in the back seat. The driver and passengers were not talking to each other, or otherwise interacting. Video linked in the article shows her suddenly lunging towards him and spraying him in the face with pepper spray at point blank range.

      Her friend tries to pull her off of him. He then tries to get out of the car, while she keeps spraying him, where he calls 911 and she’s arrested.

      • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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        8 hours ago

        Wait… your description doesn’t include any praying either. Did he pray or not? It just looks like an attack.

        It would make me uncomfortable if someone just started audibly praying while driving me though. Given the tone I might even take it as a threat on my life, if I felt like it was some “last rights” or “give me strength” shit that made me feel like they were about to off themselves with me in the car.

        The solution would absolutely not be to pepper spray the driver though. That can only make my fears a reality.

        • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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          7 hours ago

          He apprently was praying when she attacked him. Being Muslim, he needs to pray several times a day to stay devout. It’s likely he was reciting one of those prayers.

          It looks clear that he was speaking in Arabic and she took that to mean that he should be viciously attacked. It’s unlikely she knew it was a prayer, so your religious fears above likely dont apply.

          • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            Hmm bad Muslim then, as I’m lead to believe from all the Muslims friends I have. You specifically don’t need to pray while traveling. Actively driving would obviously qualify.

            • mosiacmango@lemm.ee
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              7 hours ago

              I’m not going to speak to whether he was required to pray in that instance or not, but the fact remains she heard Arabic from a Muslim man and attacked him.

              I assume him being a “bad Muslim” in your eyes doesn’t excuse the attack, right?

              • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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                4 hours ago

                I already said it was wrong. Just because someone is a victim doesn’t make their behavior also not wrong though. There’s a time and a place for religious behavior.

                • wildcardology@lemmy.world
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                  1 hour ago

                  So according to you praying randomly is bad religious behavior? Maybe he’s going through something and a silent prayer gives him relief.

                • the_crotch@sh.itjust.works
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                  3 hours ago

                  Per the first amendment, that time and place are whenever and wherever you want. I’d assume that applies to inside of your own damn car.