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Joining the ongoing wave of aggressive acts of hate against Asian people across the US, a New York City woman recently walked into a nail salon in the city's Chinatown neighborhood and began threatening and screaming at the shop's Asian workers.
According to a Washington Post report, she howled a popular racist refrain levied at Asian people in America:
"You brought coronavirus to this country!"
After that tirade, the woman then left the salon and berated an Asian person walking on the sidewalk.
When a bystander--an Asian-American man--intervened, the Washington Post went on, the woman dug her heels in, calling him "a Chinese mother fu**er."
But the woman, identified as 50-year-old Sharon Williams, was stunned to discover that the bystander was actually an undercover NYPD police officer.
Not surprisingly, things only went downhill for Williams after that. The undercover cop called for backup, the NYPD arrested her, and she was charged with harassment as a hate crime and aggravated harassment as a hate crime.
Arrest Made In Anti-Asian Attack In Chinatown youtu.be
People who came across the story were, as usual, horrified by the ongoing wave of anti-Asian racism.
ReviewRanger/Youtube
WongTon/Youtube
La Mer/Youtube
Sooz/Youtube
Steven Pena/Youtube
ReviewRanger/Youtube
Others delighted in the plot twist.
Jennnifer Fuentes/Facebook
Kat Desiyon/Facebook
Joseph B Patrick/Facebook
The presence of the plainclothes policeman may stem from a recent policy implemented by the NYPD.
According to a March 25 report by Associated Press, the NYPD has increased outreach and patrols in Asian communities, and specifically began sending undercover Asian officers to those patrols.
In hindsight following this recent incident, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea's remarks regarding the department's decision were spot on:
"The next person you target, whether it's through speech, menacing activity or anything else, walking along a sidewalk or on a train platform, may be a plainclothes New York City police officer. So think twice."
Perhaps enough moments of sudden, unexpected justice will go far in reducing the alarming, ongoing trend of violence against Asian and Pacific Islander communities.