A video shot over the weekend in San Francisco, possibly after the large pro-Palestinian march up Market Street on Saturday, purports to show a guy — apparently quite intoxicated — leaning into the window of another guy's car and harassing him, he says because of his pro-Palestine sweatshirt.
The video was posted to TikTok, and the poster claims he was trying to pick up his girlfriend when "these two racist dudes started harassing me." The interaction caught on video doesn't make a lot of sense — the guy outside the car, identified by some on social media as being employed by local research and financial data firm PitchBook, seems to be reaching into the car, says something that sounds like "Views are what's happening," and when the driver starts rolling up his window the guy begins yanking at the glass as if to try to break it.
As the car pulls away, the guy can be seen kicking the exterior of the car. A second man is seen outside, smiling sort of menacingly and waving. The creator of the video says that the aggression was due to anti-Arab racism, and his sweatshirt can not be seen in the video.
@clarissabitar Unhinged #fyp #arabtiktok #arab #racism ♬ original sound - Clarissa Bitar
We can't confirm any of the circumstances or individuals in the video, but SFist is reposting it in the interest of public dialogue about some of the toxicity of the conversations happening around the current conflict in the Middle East.
The video has received over 960,000 views on TikTok, and countless more on X/Twitter in reposts.
PitchBook, for its part, responded to messages on X/Twitter on Monday suggesting that it had fired the individual who was seen in the video after its own investigation.
"PitchBook does not tolerate violence or harassment of any kind," the company said. "The individual in the video is no longer with the company, and the actions in the video do not represent PitchBook."
We investigated this incident as soon as we learned of it. PitchBook does not tolerate violence or harassment of any kind. The individual in the video is no longer with the company, and the actions in the video do not represent PitchBook.
— PitchBook (@PitchBook) October 16, 2023
On Sunday, San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins tweeted, and then deleted, a statement that referred to Saturday's march as a "pro-Hamas" event. She was tweeting in the context of some anti-Israel graffiti encouraging violence that appeared on some Market Street storefronts after the march, which is being investigated.
Jenkins later sidestepped fully apologizing for the tweet, saying on Monday, "members of the Muslim and Arab community reached out to me expressing concerns about the tweet and how it may be interpreted. I listened & understand their concerns & as a result, deleted the tweet. I do not support violence."
Previously: Anti-Jewish Graffiti Appears on Market Street Following Pro-Palestinian March
