A man has been caught on camera hurling anti-Asian slurs at an officer from the New York Police Department (NYPD), in an incident the force says is “disturbing”.
It began when NYPD officers in riot gear responded to a demonstration in Washington Square Park at the weekend, according to the New York Post.
Footage of the incident on Reddit shows a man calling an NYPD officer a “ch***k”, after he approaches the man, who is visibly angry.
The man continues by racially abusing the NYPD officer, who he calls a “piece of s***” and a “f****** ch***k”, and alleges that he is “[not] from this country”.
As another officer tries intervening, the man continues calling the officer a “ch***k”, and other racially charged slurs in front of the individual filming.
When a cyclist accuses the man of racism, he responds by shouting “Suck my d***k” and says “Black people can’t be racist”.
It finishes with the man yelling that the NYPD are “racist”, and that if you are not white “and join the police force, than you should know the oppression that is being placed down on our people. That’s why I called him a ch**k”.
In a statement, the NYPD told The Independent that the incident in Washington Square Park was “disturbing”.
“Each day, NYPD officers are expected to maintain a level of professionalism under an array of difficult circumstances. In this instance, an Asian police officer was subjected to an ugly onslaught of racial slurs and maintained his composure.”
“However, it is disturbing to see this type of language used against any Asian person in light of the disturbing increase of Asian hate crimes citywide,” a spokesperson for the NYPD added.
It follows an increase in anti-Asian crimes, and calls for police departments throughout the US to address issues of racial inequality and brutality.
