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For many New Yorkers, the past week has been stressful and exhausting. Early Tuesday morning, as many people in the city were commuting to work, someone opened fire on a subway train, injuring at least 23 people. In the hours that followed, everyone anxiously awaited the identification and dread of the person, or those responsible. That evening, the New York City Police Department identified a “person of interest,” and on Wednesday afternoon, they arrested Frank R. James in the East Village. Then a hero appeared: Zack Tahhan, a 21-year-old from Syria, who stepped forward and said he was the one who pointed James to the police.
Not long after James was arrested, Tahhan held an impromptu press conference on the sidewalk, telling reporters, “I thought, ‘God, this is him, we need to get him,'” before jumping out of a police car and pointing his finger away from the suspect, Tahhan, and the smartphone video interviews he gave, soon appeared all over social media, especially especially Twitter.After more than 30 hours of uncertainty and news about security camera malfunction At the scene of the shooting, the internet found a hero. “This * IS * the real heart of NYC,” tweeted a. “Know that this man who sold me Juul shells multiple times was more effective at catching the Brooklyn shooter than the entire NYPD!” wrote another one. Early enough, #ThankYouZack prevalent.
It was one of those moments when the very format of social media allowed people to mock someone when they needed a hero the most. Despite Tahhan’s attention, it remains unclear whose advice actually led to James’ apprehension — two other citizens claim to have played a role, and maybe he did self-report – but even so, after a day and a half of uncertainty, most people seem thrilled to be able to believe in humanity again. Usually, Twitter’s “protagonist“Is a bad thing — remember Dad bean? —But for a while on Wednesday, Tahhan was the kind of character who made the birds on Twitter rejoice.
In a way, Tahhan’s budding popularity turned the Brooklyn subway shooting into a tale of two interns. In fact, the Internet is a multiverse, but for the sake of this argument, let’s stick with these two: On the one hand, you have James, who before his arrest, Reportedly Posted a series of large annotated videos on YouTube. On the other hand, you have Tahhan, who became a hero because the social network allowed people to share his story in a way that traditional press conferences from the NYPD couldn’t. The Internet can be full of hate speech; it can also be a place where people will remind you, as one Twitter user did, “We mention Islam at every opportunity when it is associated with a negative event. How about we refer to it when it comes in the form of a Muslim hero who has made a precious American city a little bit safer? (In one video, Tahhan said he fasted during the month of Ramadan.)
As of this writing, James is faced with federal terrorism charges. At least 23 people were injured in Tuesday morning’s shooting, but miraculously none of them were killed. In some ways, New York, like Times Written This week, has been “pardoned”. The city also, through Tahhan, must honor its local heroes on Twitter — all while Elon Musk is trying buy it out of them.
