The disturbing video of a man making racist slurs over a parking dispute in Abbotsford has sparked widespread reaction condemning the incident.
Yesterday, Abbotsford MLAs Micheal de Jong and Darryl Plecas took to Twitter to express their dismay over the racist altercation.
The racist comments circulating in Abbotsford media today are deplorable and have absolutely no place in our province. #bcpoli #cdnpoli
— Michael de Jong (@Mike_de_Jong) October 24, 2016
The hate speech rant recently is utterly unacceptable in our community. https://t.co/tBQmUkfSpo #Abbotsford @Mike_de_Jong @SimonGibsonMLA
— Darryl Plecas (@DarrylPlecas) October 24, 2016
The altercation— which was captured on camera—took place on October 21 and shows a Caucasian male shouting aggressively at the South Asian man filming the incident.
Throughout the course of the video, the Caucasian man yells disturbing, racist slurs at the South Asian man, repeatedly calling him a “f*cking sh*t skin.”
“You f*cking Paki, go back to f*cking India,” said the man. “F*cking Hindu… White power motherf*cker.”
Making progress
Const. Ian MacDonald with Abbotsford Police Department says that progress has been made on the case. The perpetrator has been identified, and Const. Macdonald confirmed that he is not a resident of Abbotsford.
“We have statements from all the witnesses, we actually got a copy of the entire video yesterday and so I believe we will be able to recommend charges either later today or tomorrow,” he told Daily Hive.
MacDonald also believes the outpouring support for the witness filming the attack goes to show that the majority of people do not tolerate racist behaviour.
“I think it’s been overwhelming in its condemnation, which I refer to that as kind of the silver lining in this incident,” he said.
“There don’t seem to be any apologists for this racial tirade. There doesn’t seem to be anybody that is trying to fly a misplaced free speech flag, there doesn’t seem to be anybody saying ‘oh well this guy is just having a bad day.’ Everybody seems to uniformly be saying that this just has no place.”
See also
According to MacDonald, the entire tirade was not caught on film. The perpetrator began by verbally insulting a 72-year-old parking lot security guard.
“I want to commend the witness because he basically got involved in a situation where he saw what turns out to be a 72-year-old parking lot security guard trying to ticket a vehicle for trying to park improperly,” MacDonald said.
“My point of emphasis is that the video captures some of the incident but it does not capture all of the incident and so the things that were said to that parking enforcement officer are part of our investigation and could be the source of one or more of the charges.”
Social media reaction
The video created a social media storm as local people condemned the racist tirade:
Remember, racism is taught. And completely unacceptable. #viewerdiscretion #Abbotsford https://t.co/JaWMAvhV6p
— Neil Morrison (@NeilTalks) October 24, 2016
Yes racism exists in Abbotsford, here are some initiatives the City of Abbotsford engages in to combat it. https://t.co/BWeW7D8saj
— 👻Patrified Oystryk (@Padeeo) October 24, 2016
The video even caught the attention of comedians Patton Oswalt and Seth Rogan, who both shared their thoughts on Twitter.
@timheidecker @pattonoswalt Abbotsford has a good air show though.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) October 24, 2016
He DOES say, “Have a nice day, sir.” Even Canadian racists are very polite. https://t.co/Xfc8OrfQCX
— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) October 24, 2016
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