After yelling at a doorman, an Amazon delivery person assaulted an Upper West Side resident this past weekend.
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James lives at 820 West End Avenue (at West 100th Street). He was heading out to get a bagel on Sunday, and when he got to the building lobby, he heard shouting. When he got to the door, he saw an Amazon delivery worker “screaming hysterically at the doorman.”
When he approached the door in an attempt to leave, he looked through the glass and made eye contact with the Amazon employee – at which point, James tells us – she started screaming at him and “demanding to know what [his] problem was.” He told her he wanted to leave, and reluctantly, she let him out. She then continued yelling at the doorman.
Out of concern things might escalate further, James began recording when he got outside. At about the same time, the doorman called the police, but the delivery person had left by the time they arrived.
The Amazon worker started yelling at James, asking him to stop recording her. He continued to record, and eventually, James tells us the Amazon worker punched him in the face.
Hey @amazon, one of your workers assaulted me on the UWS. NYPD24Pct was called, but when they arrived she had legged it and the other Amazon workers would not/could not help. @Amazon is a public safety menace! @GaleBrewerNYC @MarkLevineNYC pic.twitter.com/GUg4SoiGwT
— Enkephalos ???? (@nkephalos) November 20, 2022
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The entire altercation reportedly started when the Amazon employee was having an “excessively loud phone conversation outside people’s windows” and the doorman had asked her to keep it down.
Police confirm that a report consistent with the above described events was filed on Sunday. “[A] 41 year old male victim states an unknown female punched him in the face while he was exiting the building,” an NYPD spokesperson wrote to ILTUWS. “The unknown female was having a dispute with the doorman at the location. The victim sustained a bump over his left eye. There are no arrests at this time.”
I’ve seen an Amazon/Merchants delivery person having a screaming argument with a building resident out on the sidewalk.
Also seen one smoke weed during the shift.
Great HR department. /s
Given how much congestion the Merchants(Amazon) trucks add to Manhattan, unlike the USPS, UPS, and FedEx, it’s probably time to ban Amazon delivery services in NYC.
I am sorry to say this, but that is a ridiculous response. The answer is to complain to the company about employees’ conduct. Or choose not to use them. Not to prevent the rest of us from using them. Lets not be a fascist ok? We have enough of those already in this country.
Susan,
Which part of my response are you answering?
The bad HR, hiring really, point?
Or my point that Amazon Merchants trucks take traffic lanes for hours and hours causing congestion that FedEx, the USPS, Sysco restaurant supply trucks, and UPS simply don’t?
It’s hardly “fascist” to point out that the Amazon Merchants trucks are a big problem, bigger than Fresh Direct.
See, FedEx, UPS, the USPS, and even Sysco have depots in NYC where sorting is done for individual trucks. But Amazon has moved half the sorting to the street/avenue, thereby by saving the company on depot costs, but it’s done that at our expense. So it’s time to consider banning Amazon Merchants from NYC, since the company can’t obey basic parking laws.
PS, fascism is the fusion of big corporations and the state, that’s Amazon, amongst others. Irony.
It’s only a matter of time until someone is killed on this stretch of West End because an Amazon truck and its crew have completely cordoned off an entire lane to do their business. Repeated complaints to the 24th precinct about this have, as always, been useless.
JoBob:
Do you take photos and record the exact intersection?
and, if that is the case—as so often has been reported—its time to take action against the police force through changes in funding, hiring and training. Lord knows, their salaries and benefits are excellent and should draw lots of interested applicants.
I feel empathy for the Amazon worker and embarrassed for all USW residents. This video shows the uncomfortable position the worker was in. These two men were in positions of greater power; they were in a predominantly white, affluent neighborhood yelling at someone who is likely in a lower socioeconomic class who possesses less power in this situation. The men are upset, one calling another NYPD, an authority with more power and long history of assaulting people of color, and the other filming without consent and only making the situation more fraught. I’m not saying it’s right to cause bodily harm. But this video showed the amount of distress the Amazon worker was in. Let’s be more neighborly, more understanding, and grateful that underpaid employees bring packages to our doorsteps during the most stressful time of the year.
This response is so accurate and compassionate. The delivery worker is more worried about the consequences from the video taker’s actions than her own. It backs up the fact that there is a power imbalance in place.
Awww, look everyone. Kaitlyn C just completed her social justice class
Cyrus:
Check.
And “forgot” that the Amazon worker took it to the next level, hitting the building resident.
Awwwwww. Let’s feel sorry for someone who’s making a scene in public. Lower socioeconomic class? Then do whatever you want and just guilt-trip white people! She was in distress because she doesn’t know how to behave. Her fault, not any one else’s.
There is no way the Amazon employee’s behavior is acceptable.
However, lest we forget, most of these delivery folks are doing a miserable and thankless job schlepping urgently needed crap all over the world for a minimum, unlivable, wage. Amazon is a heinous disaster for the planet, the city, its workers and the rest of us.
I wouldn’t expect the low wage earners who take these jobs to have alot of people skills ..or not have problems that prevent other employment……Why antagonize this worker by continuing to record when her behavior suggests she might have some mental or coping issues and no ongoing crime was being committed.
Why continue video recording?
So as to have solid ID when complaining to Amazon Merchants?
Sure, it’s not polite, but the Amazon worker instead of turning around and walking away hit the resident.
So take A single pic, maybe two and then move on and file your complaint. This guys twitter profile actually self mentions hes an occasional crank and troll. Glad he’s not my neighbor or on my co op board.
John UWS:
I already said use of the camera wasn’t exactly polite, and I don’t suppose just photos would have been polite.
However, again, the Amazon worker didn’t have the sense to simply turn and walk away.
If you read the first comment, which is mine, I note that I’ve already witnessed behavior by Amazon/Merchants workers on the street that you basically never see from other delivery workers. This speaks to really bad supervision both on the street and in general.
Not a fan of the mess Amazon has made of neighborhoods with the noisy pop-up distribution sites ( that use scarce public space free-of-charge), but the whole filming-while-goading-the-worker was pointless. Having a shit job with a corporate menace like Amazon doesn’t bestow a license to abuse people, but the wanna-be videographer played a role in this altercation. I was assaulted by a short-fuse guy and I did nothing to precipitate his violent outburst… so why on earth this guy would intentionally antagonize someone who clearly has an impulse control problem is beyond me. SMH.
Agree w Theo, Raffaella and Kaitlyn.
The guy antagonized her. And per his twit account reported her to Amazon…so what started out as a noise complaint w her employer could now have escalated because of the
” assault” ….
She had the choice to keep her hands to herself. Instead she chose the idiot’s response to anger.
Polite or not, you are allowed to film in public. You are NOT allowed to hit people, in public or otherwise.