A well-known Black Lives Matter activist allegedly ruined a fellow University of Virginia student’s reputation, accusing her of referring to George Floyd protesters as “speed bumps” and threatening to run them over — only to later admit she may have “misheard” the offending comments, according to a report.
UVA student Zyahna Bryant, then 19, was already a high-profile activist when she encountered fellow student Morgan Bettinger at the July 2020 protest.
What happened next sparked a social media hate campaign in which Bettinger was denounced as a “Nazi;” school investigations; and a bid by Bryant to have Bettinger expelled, according to the outlet Reason Magazine.
Bettinger, the daughter of a police officer, pulled up near a local George Floyd demonstration and found the street blocked by protesters.
A truck driver had parked his vehicle to protect the demonstrators, prompting Bettinger to at one point tell him, “It’s a good thing that you are here, because otherwise, these people would have been speed bumps,”
Reason magazine reported.
“I had no interest in walking over to him to speak to him,” she told authorities, according to Reason, “but out of being polite, when he spoke to me I answered.”
The “speed bumps” remark was said in gratitude, Bettinger noted, to thank the driver for guarding the demonstrators, who had taken over a busy street.
The driver later corroborated Bettinger’s remark to local cops.
“Not once did anything from the past, of even the rally, Unite the Right rally, cross my mind,” she said.
“It was simply a comment made to a [dump] truck driver who was sitting and blocking the road, and just saying, like, ‘It’s good you’re here.'”
Bryant took it quite differently, according to the outlet.
Bettinger, she claimed, was threatening demonstrators, and got in her car and cried after she was confronted.
The incident drew attention after Bryant, a student and social justice activist, took to Twitter.
Her version of what happened was retweeted more than 1,000 times.
“The woman in this truck approached protesters in #Charlottesville, and told us that we would make ‘good speed bumps,'” Bryant wrote.
“She then called the police and started crying saying we were attacking her.”
Bryant also posted videos — not of the alleged “speed bump” comment itself, but of its aftermath.
In the footage, Bettinger backs down the street in her car while Bryant and several other protesters follow.
“It’s a Karen, it’s a Karen,” Bryant taunted, according to Reason.
The story was picked up by local media and spread like wildfire.
Bettinger was identified online the next morning and was barraged with insults and accusations from UVA students.
One student tweeted that Bettinger was a “f–king Nazi.”
The next day, Bryant began demanding that school administrators expel Bettinger.
A student disciplinary hearing concluded that Bettinger was guilty of making a legal threat against the protesters.
But a second probe found Bryant probably didn’t even hear firsthand what Bettinger uttered, and considered her evidence shaky, according to Reason.
Bettinger eventually graduated from UVA but with a permanent mark on her record, Reason reported.
No witnesses corroborated Bryant’s claim that Bettinger derided protesters as “good f–king speed bumps” — even though it happened in front of more than 30 people, according to the outlet, which also reviewed documents previously not made public in the case.
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