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”.

  • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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    27 days ago

    They can legally also do it while working, though. It’s their car and they’re not an employee, so Uber certainly can’t tell them not to. I guess I don’t really see what you’re trying to say: do you want him to not be allowed to pray while working, or do you just think it’s a dick move? If the latter, do you think it’s reasonable to pepper spray him for it?

    I’ve got misophonia, and sometimes people make sounds that make me super uncomfortable. In an Uber- style situation, I tend to just politely ask them not to (unless it’s a breathing sound, in which case I just try to distract myself)), which has never not worked.

    • Sarmyth@lemmy.world
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      27 days ago

      I just think it’s a dick move, and as already stated explicitly by me, they should not be pepper sprayed or attacked in any way. This is a “playing music out loud on a bus” level of annoyance.