Video of former WHYY intern pepper-spraying influencer on SEPTA bus goes viral on conservative media

A video of a former WHYY intern yelling expletives at and pepper-spraying a local influencer on a SEPTA bus is going viral on conservative media.

During the encounter on Monday afternoon 22-year-old Paulina Reyes called 22-year-old Francis Scales a “fascist” and “racist.” Reposts of the video capturing the incident have since garnered millions of views on social media.

The video depicts Reyes accusing Scales of insulting Muslim people, Black people and Latino people in posts on his website. Reyes then proceeds to pepper spray him in the face while Scales’ friend and colleague films.

Scales runs a website called Surge Philly on which he posts videos of himself interviewing people at protests.

Social media accounts, including I Meme Therefore I Am, which has more than 842,000 X followers and Libs of TikTok, which has 4.5 million X followers, launched the video and its two subjects into the national spotlight in the days following the encounter. Both social media accounts are known for posting and reposting content geared toward conservative audiences.

“BREAKING: Antifa agitator attacked two conservative independent journalists on a Philly bus, pepper spraying them, punching them, and trying to grab their phone. She needs to be identified and arrested!” I Meme Therefore I Am posted on X alongside the video on Monday night.

By Wednesday afternoon the post had 2.3 million views and 8,600 reposts.

Elon Musk got involved, commenting “She has violence issues” on Surge Philly’s X post containing the video of the incident. His comment attracted 222,000 views.

Soon, the social media posts were linking Reyes to WHYY. Reyes interned there over the summer but neglected to update her LinkedIn profile to reflect that her internship had ended months ago. The lapse led people on social media to post about her as if she was still employed there and led to criticism of the public radio station.

“Hi @WHYYNews, why are your reporters pepper spraying independent journalists on the bus??” Libs of TikTok posted Tuesday morning.

Scales has capitalized on the attention reposting several tweets from popular social media accounts containing the video and messages supporting him and condemning Reyes.

Meanwhile, Reyes said she’s received “nonstop” phone calls from strangers around the country and has received private messages from people threatening to rape or kill her.

Reyes and Scales were peers at the Community College of Philadelphia, where Reyes is still a full-time student studying communications and media. Scales was studying biology and got partway through his degree before leaving school and transitioning to full time content creation, he said. He plans to go back and finish his degree eventually.

The two crossed paths a few times at school and were familiar with each other at the time of the encounter on the 7 bus, they both said.

Reyes said she had an overall positive impression of Scales on their first few meetings, and felt he was trying to do right by the students in his capacity as student body president.

But her attitude changed during his tenure as president. She said she observed him condescend to students and staff of color and carried that behavior over to the content on his Surge Philly website once he left school.

When she saw him on the bus in South Philly, her initial intention was to have a civil conversation, she said. She planned on asking him why his videos don’t offer multiple viewpoints on the issues discussed.

“I did not want to pepper spray someone on a public bus,” she said. “This is not something I wanted to do.”

Scales soon started filming the confrontation “for my own safety,” he said, because “she was attacking me.”

Reyes asked him to stop filming and felt the anger building as he kept the camera rolling, she said. Especially as it started to dawn on her that he’d likely post this video online.

“I got mad and I wanted to defend myself because he wasn’t listening,” Reyes said. “I did what I thought was the safest thing to protect myself. I pepper sprayed him in the face.”

Scales said he managed to dodge the first spray. Reyes then got off the bus.

Knowing this video was likely to reach Scales followers, Reyes returned to the bus and came at Scales again with insults about his videos.

“I wanted to make a message that the content he was making was harmful and it was hurting people,” Reyes said. “It was hurting communities that are trying to feel safe right now.”

She concluded her tirade by macing him again, this time getting him in the eyes.

SEPTA is investigating the incident which took place at the intersection of 23rd Street and Washington Avenue, according to its spokesperson Andrew Busch.

The Philadelphia Police did not return a request for comment. Nor did the Community College of Philadelphia.

Scales posted the video online partly because it was such a shocking incident, but also, in part, because it felt aligned with the rest of the content on his website.

“I thought it was relevant,” Scales said. “She was calling me a racist and a fascist and then she committed violence because of what she thought I was.”

This wasn’t Scales first time getting attacked for his interviews and posts, he said. He attributes the attacks to the lines of questioning he often pursues when interviewing people at protests. The protesters seem to sense he’s not “in their circle,” he said.

Some of Scales’ recent videos consist of him interviewing people at protests and on the street. He typically hones in on one question such as “Do you think people have a right to disrupt ICE operations?” and “Do you believe in the concept of having a border?”

“They react aggressively and violently to anybody who they feel may not have their same worldview,” he said. “I think it’s a sign that what I’m doing is good and that I need to stay on this path.”

As for Reyes’ journalistic aspirations, she said she’s nervous.

“My entire life has been feeling like it’s falling down now,” she said. “I’m just worried about how this would affect my future as a journalist.”

WHYY spokesperson Gary Bramnick responded to the incident with a statement clarifying Reyes “has no current affiliation, employment, or contractual relationship with our organization.”

Reyes said she’s undergone years of treatment for borderline personality disorder and depression. She’s been working on managing her emotions better, she said, but, in this moment, they got the best of her.

“I’m not a perfect person and I’m learning how to self-regulate better,” she said.

For Scales part, he said he doesn’t feel safe returning to campus until the college makes a public statement in an effort to “denounce political violence.”