Black man calls Asian-American NYPD cop 'f**king ch**k' in viral video
NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: In New York’s Greenwich Village, a racist altercation took place between a Black man and an Asian-American NYPD officer that has been captured on video. It was shared on the New York City subreddit on Sunday night, June 6, with the caption, “Man calls Asian NYPD a Ch*** multiple times at Washington Square Park Protest last night.” The video has since gone viral on Reddit.
On Saturday night, June 5, the New York Times reported that several police officers streamed through Washington Square Park and the surrounding streets clad in riot gear, pushing and arresting people, enforcing the new 10 pm weekend curfew at the park, which closes at 12 am on most days.
Mayor Bill de Blasio defended the officers’ actions on Monday, June 7, saying he believed the curfew was the “right thing to do for this moment.” He said the officers wore riot gear for their protection: “If, unfortunately, folks initiate violence towards our fellow New Yorkers or towards police officers, that has to be addressed.”
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The video that has gone viral on Reddit shows a Black man being confronted by a group of officers who appear to ask him to move from the road onto the sidewalk. The man, dressed in a white T-shirt and a ball cap, spoke to an Asian-American officer in the group and said, “You’re not even from this country. You piece of s***. You f***ing ch**k!”
The racist slur he used is a derogatory, ethnic one that originally referred to a person of Chinese descent, but is now indiscriminately used against people with East Asian facial features.
He repeated the offensive slur several times, as seen in the video. The Asian-American cop, however, maintained his composure. Another cop in a visible attempt to de-escalate the situation leads his colleague away. But the man kept repeating the slur as he walked along with them.
Another man who was White, passing by on a bicycle, called out the use of the slur. “Why you calling people ch**k, man? F*** you!' the cyclist yelled.
The Black man immediately turned on the biker, and repeatedly yelled at him to “suck my d***.” When another bystander accused the man of being racist, he responded with, “Black people can't be racist, you piece of s***.” He added “We could be prejudiced to prejudge something, but we cannot be racist; these motherf***ers are racist.”
“The cops are not our friends,” he argued. “Whether you're Asian, Hispanic... or other than European, and you've joined the police force, you should know the oppression that is being placed out on our people. That's why I called him a ch**k.”
American author, professor, historian, and anti-racist activist Ibram X Kendi argued in his 2019 book 'How to be an Antiracist' that the notion that Black people can't be racist is tainted by racism itself.
In a CNN interview, he argued, "You have black people who believe that they can't be racist because they believe that black people don't have power and that's blatantly not true. Every single person on earth has the power to resist racist policies and power." In a statement, the NYPD called the incident “disturbing.”
A police spokesperson said, “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.”
Pat Lynch, the president of the Police Benevolent Association, the largest police union representing police officers of the New York City Police Department, said “Criminals know that the politicians are all talk. They know there are no real consequences for their vicious anti-Asian hate, even when it’s directed at a police officer. If the politicians really want to ‘Stop the Hate,’ they need to stop demonizing cops first.”