White woman filmed chasing black woman around Victoria's Secret - Victim's gofundme gets $78,465

[left-of-center2012]

Last edited Wed Jul 14, 2021, 12:33 PM - Edit history (1)

Police in Essex County, N.J., were called to the Mall at Short Hills after a Black woman recorded video on her phone of a white woman she says tried to attack her and chased her around a store. In the video that went viral on social media, the white woman appears to take a swipe at someone until she notices she’s being recorded.

Ijeoma Ukenta, 38, of Newark, says in the video that she started recording after the woman chased her around Victoria’s Secret. Ukenta, who is Black, later told police that the other woman tried to strike her. “She chased me around the store and tried to attack me twice,” Ukenta says in one of several videos posted to Twitter and YouTube.

Two Millburn police officers responded to the scene and questioned the woman who was being recorded, the video shows. One of the officers approached Ukenta and asked her to email police the video.

In a GoFundMe* that has raised more than $78,465 for Ukenta, she says the woman in the store assaulted her and police and mall security failed to take action.

https://www.pennlive.com/nation-world/2021/07/police-called-to-mall-as-white-woman-is-filmed-chasing-black-woman-around-victorias-secret.html

*‘HELP ME DEFEND MYSELF AGAINST KAREN’ gofundme account
“I am a Black Muslimah Nigerian AM and I was treated like it was 1920 ...”

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-me-defend-myself-against-karen

[malaise]

1. If I knew I'd get $75,000 via Gofundme, I think I'd be good for the chase

Now where is a Karen?

[Kaleva]

2. Does the title say the white woman got $78k from GoFundMe?

[brush]

3. Yes, the poster needs to edit that title. It implies the opposite of how the post reads.

[lagomorph777]

16. Horribly written headline.

That's becoming more common lately. It seems grammar is optional now.

[3catwoman3]

40. "It seems that grammar is optional now."

Along with spelling, punctuation, and paragraphs.

There are some posts I do not read here on DU because of no pargraphs - too hard to read.

[brush]

4. Your headline needs editing.

[jmbar2]

5. The white woman was out-of control and having a meltdown...

appears to be suffering from a form of mental illness - probably borderline personality disorder.

However, the camerawoman took advantage of it, prolonged it, and egged her on for her own gain. She's making out like a bandit for it. Not sure I'm comfortable with that either....

Link to tweet

?s=20

[wryter2000]

8. I'm with you

What does she need money for? She wasn't harmed. It doesn't say she's in any legal jeopardy.

[PatSeg]

20. Sounds like an opportunist

Meanwhile, we really don't know what happened before she started recording.

[secondwind]

9. I agree, this is disturbing on so many levels.

Why didn’t shop employees try to calm this woman down, or even just show her the door?

Why did the person filming this continue on and on…..

[WhiskeyGrinder]

10. Having a loud and obnoxious meltdown does not mean you have a mental illness.

[jmbar2]

38. This one feels different from the usual "Karen" meltdowns

but not untypical for a Borderline Personality meltdown where the individual is flooded with emotions and has no ability to control herself.

The white woman lacks self-control, similar to that of a two-year old having a tantrum. By continuing to video and hover around her, the cameraperson triggers a continuing emotional overload.

Typical Karens are able to control themselves, they just don't. They enjoy harassing and frightening others, exerting power over them.

My feeling is that this woman cannot control her emotions. You wouldn't taunt a two year old in a tantrum this way. That's the difference, IMHO.

Here's a good intro to Borderline rage
https://www.dana.org/article/the-frustrating-no-mans-land-of-borderline-personality-disorder/

[3catwoman3]

12. Why didn't she just get up and...

…leave the store?

[Buckeye_Democrat]

21. I agree.

The crazy antics went on and on!

If she didn't want to be video recorded, then just leave.

[smirkymonkey]

43. Thank you!

She was wallowing in it.

[obamanut2012]

15. Man, people will excuse anything a white person does

And, I say that as an extremely white person.

[kcr]

37. And some people have zero empathy for people suffering from mental health issues n/t

[PatSeg]

18. I agree, this looks really fishy

It looks too much like the woman with the phone was taking advantage of the situation. She was a little too theatrical and then she starts a GoFundMe account?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

19. Lol "too theatrical." Too theatrical for what? Taking advantage of what?

[PatSeg]

25. Without seeing what preceded the video

it is hard to say. I've seen a lot of "Karen" videos, but something about this one doesn't smell right. It doesn't help that she collected over $70,000 because of the incident.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

27. Okay, but you said "too theatrical" after seeing the videos. What does that mean?

[PatSeg]

31. Sorry, can't put it into words

but somehow didn't feel genuine to me. It reminded me too much of insurance or shoplifting scams, often involving more than one person. Being there have been so many outrageous Karen videos in recent years, I'd give her the benefit of the doubt, but the GoFundMe account raises some concern.

[BannonsLiver]

44. +1. the whole story is totally gross.

Greed, racism, opportunism. It’s truly American in every way.

[3catwoman3]

6. Most toddler meltdowns don't last...

…that long. That was pathetic.

[Sneederbunk]

7. Missed the "chase" part.

[wryter2000]

11. The white woman did chase the black woman around the store for a while

Ironically yelling, "Get away from me." But she never got near to the black woman. Mostly she just screamed. The black woman was never in any peril.

Now, I'm ashamed to admit I watched the whole thing.

[obamanut2012]

14. She literally took a swing at the woman

It's on the video!

[wryter2000]

17. From a distance

She never got close to making contact. What's more, the other person never seemed afraid of what was going on. She did, rightly, note that the white woman was accusing her of attacking the white woman. And she very legitimately recorded everything to protect herself from being arrested and prosecuted. At one point, she said something like, "This is how they get us killed."

I honestly don't understand what she needs money for unless she's had to go into therapy.

[csziggy]

22. At the very beginning of the video the white woman has her arm raised coming at the other woman

For those who don't understand how it started or proceeded, from Truth or Fiction:

‘Victoria’s Secret Meltdown’ Video
Posted on July 13, 2021 by Kim LaCapria

{SNIP}

Ukenta’s footage began while Elphick stood several feet away; Elphick charged toward her in just the first two seconds. The phone tilts, and Elphick is seen backing away with a dismayed expression.

Four seconds into the video, Elphick starts covering her face with her hands. At five seconds in, Elphick starts to cry and look to bystanders for a reaction.

As Elphick shifts from charging Ukenta to sobbing in a span of five seconds, Ukenta can be heard saying “oh my God” and “do you see it?” In Ukenta’s longer “part one” video shared to YouTube, Elphick continues sobbing about being recorded.

Just before two minutes and thirty seconds in, Elphick closes her eyes and pretends to faint (seemingly using her purse as a pillow). Elphick remained prone on the store floor for nearly a minute.

More, including chronology for the other videos: https://www.truthorfiction.com/victorias-secret-meltdown-video/

[LisaL]

26. In he "gofundme" she claims she need money to hire an attorney.

For what purpose? She isn't being charged.
One doesn't need to pay for criminal charged toward "Karen." In this country it's done for free, if there is something to charge her with.

[Treefrog]

34. I'm going to go out on a limb and bet that money won't be used for any legal "help."

She was in no danger from that addled white woman. She could have simply left.

Her chuckling through the entire video kind of ruins her claim of being frightened.

[kcr]

36. I think it's a scam

Over 70 grand from Go Fund Me, all because two women got into a squabble over free underwear at Victoria's secret, and one of them posts an edited video of it? Anyone who donates is a fool.

[chowder66]

39. She filed a complaint against mall security and the police, I think. She needs a lawyer.

The victim recorded a 5 or 6 part series and put it on you tube, it covers the first moments recorded, the unstable girl came at her with her hand up in the air as though she was going to hit her or her phone, goes on a meltdown, gets up, does chase her around. The victim described her own laughter as a coping mechanism but knew that if she didn't record this she would most likely get blamed. She asked for security several times and when they arrived they basically dismissed her to a degree while coddling the white girl. The victim was invited to make a complaint which she did and she taped that part too. She goes back days later to the police station to file a complain there as well I think, I can't recall off the top of my head about the police.

I have no problem with the victim at all.

I did wonder why everyone else in that store just went about their day not trying to do a thing to try to calm the girl down or get security in asap.
Later someone did try.

How can one know if this was affluenza or a true mental illness? The victim didn't know and no one else seemed to care, she was just trying to protect herself.

[Sogo]

33. Yes, right at the beginning, the white woman was trying to slap/hit the black woman

and was very close to her in doing so.

That is not what prompted the black woman to start recording, though. It seems that there must have been something that preceded that attempted physical assault (I believe it can be characterized as that), because the black woman was already recording, and that occurred right at the beginning of part 1.

[LisaL]

13. Why does she need a lawyer?

She is not being charged with anything as far as I can tell.
She is collecting money to defend herself against Karen, but nothing needs to be done as far as I can tell that she needs to be protected from.

[csziggy]

28. She wants the cops charged that tried to make her leave the mall while coddling the white woman

She says so in one of her later videos. To see all the videos, including her reading the police report, go to her YouTube channel: MAMA AFRICA MUSLIMAH https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdxJPUOBuLbgnj8Uqqsa3Zg

[LisaL]

29. In this country you can't pay money to charge someone, so how would that work?

And what exactly could the cops be charged with?

[csziggy]

32. She can get a lawyer to represent her, explain the law to her and to police department

And to sue the police department if they will not investigate. The responding police officers did not ask the white woman who caused the fuss to leave the premises, but they did ask the black woman to leave. If they had followed through to enforce their suggestion with an order to the black woman to leave the mall, they could have ended up arresting her. This is how police escalate a situation to the point they can bring charges for no original reason. "Failure to obey a lawful command" is a charge in most areas whether or not there is an crime committed by the person in the first place.

If the police are doing discriminatory enforcement by asking the black victim in a situation to leave the premises and not asking the white perpetrator to leave, that is illegal.

I am not an attorney so I looked for documentation that discriminatory and selective enforcement does exist and found this very thorough paper from Duke University:

Police Discretion and Discriminatory Enforcement

{SNIP}

Certainly a policeman cannot be deprived of all discretion.08 The exigencies of police work are such that even the most elaborate set of statutory or regulatory directives could not succeed in removing all occasion for the exercise of judgment. The fact is, however, that far from having elaborate sets of directives, the policeman is not given even the most rudimentary guidelines."9 Instead, the policeman is free to use his discretion to oppress the poor, the Black, the culturally-deviant, and the politically-activist minorities, often with society's approval. The doctrine of Yick Wo may impose a theoretical prohibition of Type V discrimination, but it is the peculiar genius of our society to have both the doctrine and the discrimination. It is no historical accident that Yick Wo has been either ignored by courts or rendered useless by the overlay of need-to-prove intent and the imposition of a heavy burden of proof.

Allegations of a denial of equal protection by selective enforcement on the basis of racial prejudice, economic jealousy, or other unjustified criteria are disquieting because they involve charges of flagrant breaches of the public trust by the police. The courts, in the discharge of their public trust, should be especially diligent in ferreting out such discrimination and should, accordingly, lend a receptive ear to such defenses. First, the courts must accept .the notion that discriminatory enforcement can amount to a denial of equal protection. Secondly, they must give more than lip service to their recognition by relaxing the burden of proof imposed upon the defendant. A minimum of proof should shift the burden to the state to show the absence of invidiousness. Nowhere in the selective enforcement field does the state have as great an advantage of information in its files as in Type V cases, and it, not the defendant,should be charged with the duty of producing the requisite evidence to show absence of invidiousness vel non.

https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2345&context=dlj

[LisaL]

35. If lawyers think there are money to be made,

they normally take the case for free for the cut of the potential award.
She doesn't need the money to "shed the light on the situation" considered she isn't been charged to post the videos.

[tonedevil]

41. Good thing you have this all figured out...

and such compelling evidence you provide as well.

[LisaL]

42. I try.

NT

[BannonsLiver]

46. Lol

If it’s a good case she wouldn’t have any trouble finding an attorney to take it on contingency. They’d be lining up around the block. If she’s smart she’ll keep the cash and fine one that will.

[jeffreyi]

23. Scam?

I did not watch it, but it sounds fishy from the comments. A pretty good payday, split it three ways?

[LisaL]

24. Who would be the third person?