The moment a woman racially abused an Asian passenger on a Sydney train has been caught on camera, as stunned commuters watched on during a minute-long rant.
The verbal attack occurred about 9:30pm on a service between Chatswood and Epping on May 11.
The video was filmed on a mobile phone by another passenger, who provided it to ABC News on the condition of anonymity.
“I feel bad I couldn’t help the girl but I am also Asian and I was worried I would also be attacked if I stepped in,” they said.
“I hope the video can make people aware of this issue and stop racism in Australia.
“There were about 15 people on the carriage but no-one did anything.”
They said the incident was sparked after the alleged victim noticed the abuser littering, and asked her to clean up the mess.
Trains boss condemns attack
Sydney Trains chief executive Howard Collins said there were 1.3 million journeys per day on the city’s trains “but one incident like this is too much”.
“The important thing I want every single one of my customers to know is if you see something like that, tell us straight away,” he said.
“The sooner we understand what’s going on the quicker we can get our police involved and deal with such people.”
PHOTO: A witness claimed that a dispute about littering sparked the incident(Supplied)
Australia’s racial discrimination commissioner Dr Tim Soutphommasane said incidents like this were more common than you might think.
“If a perpetrator of a racist act has done so because of mental illness, you would hope that their wellbeing is looked after,” he said.
“But it doesn’t take away from the harm that’s done from someone on the receiving end of racism.”
He described the video as “the tip of an iceberg” and argued most incidents of racial abuse were not caught on camera.
PHOTO:Dr Tim Soutphommasane urged people to speak up if they witnessed racial abuse
Ahmed Abou-eid was enjoying a beautiful day with family at Harmony Park in Coburg on Wednesday when things turned ugly.
“My wife and friends frequent that park often, and the kids have a great time. It’s called Harmony Park for a reason – there’s so much friendliness in the park,” the Thornbury man said.
Racist tirade at Coburg park
Caution: strong language. An intoxicated man hurls racial abuse at a family enjoying a picnic at a park in Melbourne’s north.
“We had three female friends of mine with their children, and they probably had seven kids with them, the park was quite full and there were a lot of kids playing around.”
A man clutching a whisky bottle, hurling offensive language and racial abuse, quickly changed the mood from playful to frightening.
The man who racially abused several adults and children at a popular Coburg park on Wednesday. Photo: Ahmed Abou-eid.
“This man was sitting on his own, on a table, and there was a couple not far from him sitting on a table next to him, and he started hurling abuse at them, and telling them to get out of the country,” Mr Abou-eid said.
“And so they left and then he came over to the playground where the kids were and started doing the same thing to us.”
Mr Abou-eid said said the man was clearly intoxicated, slurring his words and wobbling as he approached and started hurling abuse at anyone within earshot.
The man walked back to the table, and then came back for a second round. Mr Abou-eid said that was when he decided to film him.
“I thought this is too close for comfort, I better film this,” he said.
“F— off you wog,” the man can be heard yelling in the video. “What are you going to do?”
“Nothing, go back to where you’re sitting,” Mr Abou-eid responds.
“Have you thought about my family? No you don’t even think about it,” the man says, in between expletives, repeating the words “wog” and “dago”.
Ahmed Abou-eid, back centre, with his family (left to right) Salma, Isra, Yasmin and Aladdin. Photo: Facebook
The man walks closer to Mr Abou-eid, realising he is being filmed, and says “you’re not allowed to take my picture”.
He walks around the playground, next to where the children are playing. “Oh you’re a macho man,” he says, inciting a fight.
He then turns on one of the women, “Go back to Greece you f—ing wog,” he yells.
“Have you thought about my family? No you don’t even think about it,” the man says, in between expletives, repeating the words “wog” and “dago”.
The man walks closer to Mr Abou-eid, realising he is being filmed, and says “you’re not allowed to take my picture”.
He walks around the playground, next to where the children are playing. “Oh you’re a macho man,” he says, inciting a fight.
He then turns on one of the women, “Go back to Greece you f—ing wog,” he yells.
The man eventually throws a punch at Mr Abou-eid, but Mr Abou-eid does not retaliate.
“Just go back, just go back,” he says to the man. At the end of the video the man sits down inside the playground, crosses his legs, and clutches his bottle of whisky.
Mr Abou-eid said after he stopped filming, several people around him decided to leave the park.
“Some families got their kids and got in their cars and drove off, and then about six or seven guys surrounded him and I think he got scared so he stopped abusing everybody,” he said.
Police were called several times during the altercation. Once they arrived the man was taken away, but Mr Abou-eid said he did not want to press charges as he didn’t want to relive what had happened.
“The police told me, they’ve had a few problems with him in the area, but not in the park, and not actually abusing anyone to the extent that he had that day,” he said.
“You think it’s the drink or the alcohol, but these people have this racism in them that comes out of them the more they drink.
“I would love to ask him why he has that much hatred towards people from overseas and what has someone done to him to make him feel like that.”
He said, by filming the incident, he hoped he could make people aware of the abuse, and urged people not to stay silent.
“These things are happening, they are real and people must stand up against these things. If they see something like that happen, don’t walk away, help out if someone needs help, step in,” Mr Abou-eid said.
Mr Abou-eid said he worried about how witnessing such abuse could affect his children in the future.
“My six-year-old asked me today if the man was still in jail. They’re still thinking about it, and they’re scared to go back to the park again,” he said.
“That park is a meeting point for a lot of friends and family, but now we will kind of think twice about whether we will go there.”
Moreland City Council mayor Helen Davidson said the behaviour was unacceptable.
“Moreland takes great pride in having such a culturally diverse community. This behaviour goes against what the community of Moreland stands for,” she said.
“Harmony Park was created by Moreland for people to come together; people of all ages, cultures and abilities. This footage shows that Moreland’s community does not tolerate this behaviour.”
Advice from the Australian Human Rights Commission about being a bystander to racial abuse is “if you see something, say something, if it feels safe to do so”.
“It doesn’t have to be aggressive, in fact it’s often more effective if it’s not. It could be as simple as saying ‘Why don’t you just leave him/her alone?”‘
Fairfax Media has chosen to blur the face of the man yelling abuse due to his level of intoxication.
A woman has gone on a racist rant against two shoppers at a Coles supermarket in Melbourne’s west, threatening them with a food tin and abusing staff as they tried to defuse the aggressive situation.
An account of the rant suggests the woman became aggressive when she thought two women of African appearance had pushed in front of her at the checkout at Coles in the Woodgrove Shopping Centre in Melton on Wednesday afternoon.
“I was here, I was here first,” the woman yells in the video.
As staff attempt to take her to another register she picks up what looks like a Milo tin and threatens to throw it at one of the two women.
The woman became aggressive while shopping at a Coles supermarket in Melton. Photo: supplied
“I’ll f—ing throw it at you, c—,” she rants.
“‘You f—ing go back to your own country, you piece of f—ing shit,” she can be heard saying on the video.
The woman, who is accompanied by a toddler girl, is eventually escorted away by staff.
“Thumbs down to this woman for her language, racist taunts and disgusting attitude. I am horrified to think this thing may live in OUR town. This is not how we act in Melton. Shame on anyone who thinks her behaviour is acceptable,” the administrator wrote.
Many commented that the racist and aggressive behaviour was particularly upsetting because the woman was with a little girl at the time.
Speaking to Fairfax Media, the administrator said the original post described the video as a “classic day in Melton” but the administrator said this did not reflect the suburb.
“This is not an everyday occurrence in Melton and, if it was, no one would have made a video of it because it would be happening all the time,” the administrator said.
“It is disgusting that it happened.”
The administrator said Woodgrove Coles staff who subscribed to the Facebook page confirmed the rant had occurred on Wednesday but said the two women who were the subject of the rant had not “pushed in”.
The administrator said initial reports suggested staff were the subject of the rant but the video and eyewitness accounts show they were not the target.
A woman has been caught on camera delivering a racist rant on an Adelaide public bus on Saturday afternoon
The video, filmed by a commuter on the bus, shows a woman yelling obscenities at a mother and child of Asian appearance, and two other passengers who came to their defence.
The couple, Jenny and Clive Starr, told Channel 9 they comforted the victims afterwards and confirmed they were okay.
SA Premier Jay Weatherill has criticised the racist remarks, saying: “This is not us, this is not who we are.”
SA police have declared the incident “not acceptable” and confirmed they will investigate the incident, asking any witnesses to contact police.
The woman could face charges of disorderly behaviour.
Police encourage anyone who witnesses or is the victim of similar behaviour to contact police.
ANDREW POTTS, Gold Coast Bulletin October 29, 2016 1:00am
A WOMAN has been filmed racially abusing an Asian passenger on the Gold Coast light rail and screaming at her to “speak (expletive) English”.
The disturbing vision was uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday and shows a blonde woman screaming at a nearby passenger.
A woman filmed racially abusing an Asian woman on the Gold Coast Light Rail. SCREEN GRABS FROM YOUTUBE
“See. Australian, thank you. You need to (expletive) speak English, mate,” the woman said.
The Asian woman responded saying, “I do”.
The older woman hit back saying, “(expletive) speak it …. you’re (expletive) in Australia, speak English”.
The woman who was the target of racial abuse from a caucasian woman on the Gold Coast Light Rail. SCREEN GRABS FROM YOUTUBE
While she was yelling, several passengers on the tram can be heard telling her to stop.
The video, which runs for a little more than a minute, was filmed at night while the tram was stopped at a station.
It appears to have been filmed by a group of students from Merrimac State High and has been watched more than 60 times.
The woman’s actions have been condemned by tram operator, GoldLinQ.
The woman was booed and shouted down by fellow tram passengers. SCREEN GRABS FROM YOUTUBE
A GoldLinQ spokesman urged passengers who were on the light rail at the time to come forward.
“It’s disappointing when we see this type of behaviour within the community and we encourage people to contact QPS or a member of our staff for assistance,” he said.
“Tram passengers can use the emergency help points located at each tram door and at stations when staff are not in the immediate area.”
It is unclear when the incident took place and it has not been reported to either GoldLinQ or the police.
GoldLinQ have since passed the video on to the Queensland Police Service for investigation.
Gold Coast district Superintendent Craig Hanlon condemned the attack and said it would “certainly” be investigated.
“We mostly definitely will be looking into this,” he said.
“I believe in an inclusive and holistic society in which people respect each other and this does not meet community standards so police will certainly be investigated.
Superintendent Craig Hanlon said the abuse featured in the video was unacceptable. Picture Glenn Hampson
“People should be able to move safely through to their destination without having to be subject to this kind of behaviour.”
Surfers Paradise police station officer-in-charge Senior Sergeant Jim Munckton urged witnesses of the incident to come forward.
“I have reviewed the footage and it would appear on the information provided that this incident has not been reported to police,” he said.
Senior Sergeant Jim Munckton urged witnesses to come forward.
“Should any person wish to report the matter they can contact Policelink 131444 or contact their local police station.”
It is the latest incident of racial abuse on public transport in Australia in the past two years.
In April last year a Muslim woman was verbally attacked on a Sydney train while in December another Sydney woman was abused for speaking to her mother in Spanish.
In September last year NSW police arrested a Sydney woman for hurling racial abuse at an Asian woman on a bus.
A Brisbane man who captured video of an “unfortunate conversation” at a suburban bus stop wanted to remain calm when confronted by a woman who he described as a “little bit racist”.
Jerome Forbes, 19, said he walked up to the Mount Gravatt Plaza bus stop, in Brisbane’s south-east, where the older lady was sitting when he tried to strike up conversation on Monday.
Watch this teenager deal with xenophobe A teenager is accused of being a foreigner and told his father should ‘pack up and go back to New Zealand’ by a woman at a Brisbane bus stop.
“We were waiting for the same bus so I tried to create conversation with her to see how her day was or see what she was up to,” Mr Forbes said.
“She sort of smirked at me in a way and it got me wondering why she would look at me like that, so I was just trying to be friendly to her.”
The Mount Gravatt Plaza bus stop Photo: Supplied
That was when the situation started to go downhill, according to Mr Forbes, who recorded the exchange.
“She started saying racist comments and then that’s when I pulled out my phone and started recording her,” he said.
The video was posted on YouTube on Tuesday. It had been viewed more than one million times and attracted more than 5000 comments by 6pm on Wednesday.
The camera is focused on the teen during the entire exchange, with viewers only hearing the unidentified woman’s voice in 1.54 minute clip.
She asks: “What do you think you are?”
Jerome Forbes recorded ‘racist’ woman at a Brisbane bus stop. Photo: Supplied
He replies: “What do I think I am? I was born here, what are you talking about?”
She responds: “”I don’t believe that you were but if you say so, okay.”
The woman questions where his father was born and he responds “New Zealand”.
“Well, it probably would be advisable for him to pack up and go back to New Zealand,” she said.
His father also posted the video on Reddit under the headline: “Today my 19 yr old son taught me how to respond to bigotry with tolerance and integrity. Must take after his mother.”
Mr Forbes said he was “just started trying to have a normal conversation with her, trying to understand where she was coming from, like trying to understand what she had against me or foreigners in general, what her problem was”.
“It just went from there and the video explains the rest,” he said.
After the video stops, Mr Forbes said the bus arrived and the two went their separate ways.
“I think she was just ignorant, I don’t think she was trying to attack me personally or have a personal go at me, trying to bring me down,,’ he said.
“I think it was just more her personal views on, I guess, race, I guess you could say she was a little bit racist.”
Mr Forbes said his prior experience with situations that would have made others lash out helped him remain calm during the conversation.
“I’ve talked to enough people and had enough experience to know this lady wasn’t trying to bring me down as a person, she was just having a go at what she believed and what she stood up for,” he said.
“There wasn’t much I could do, she was an elderly lady, I don’t want to start having a go at her and bring her down because it just puts me in the same boat as her.”
His advice for others that may run into a similar situation was to stay cool and try to reason with them
“If that situation comes across just try and understand where they’re coming from and I guess don’t hype them up, don’t try and get them abusing you,” he said.
In a separate incident, Brisbane City Council is investigating a complaint that a bus driver made a racist remark toward a passenger.
Sung to the tune of Botany Bay (composed and arranged by Wilhelm Meyer Lutz)
You don’t have to listen to Han$on When you hit the mute on the remote It works for the radio or telly Just think -a protest post-poll vote
Don’t read her bilge in the mass media Don’t look at her racist mean face Laugh when the Senate turns on her And wait for her tumble from grace
But we’ll love watching people do sendups We’ll chortle at all of those memes We’ll cheer at Huw Parkinson’s mashups Clarke and Dawe will bring more joyful screams
Look out for our media cartoonists Dog, Brown, Kudelka and Pope Moir and Cook and Kautauskas Bringing some humorous hope
Stick up for our people of colour And those of the Islamic faith Gays, lesbians and the transgendered Whose voices will be choked by this Wraith
Deny her a privileged platform Turn your backs when she spouts all her junk Rip her to shreds on the media And her fact-free “opinions” debunk
So bring on our own Pauline Pantsdown Get hell-mad with comical Shaun Watch for The Chaser to stalk her And wake to a Han$onless dawn!
Nikki Strong, the 19-year-old who defended Natalie Soto against racial slurs from a fellow passenger. Photo: Supplied
In April a Muslim couple from Brisbane were the targets of an anti-Islamic rant by a woman on a train on their way to Sydney airport with their four-month-old son. A female passenger filmed the exchange, and was praised for standing up for the couple.
A 55-year-old woman was arrested at Wyong Train station after she was filmed unleashing a racist tirade, targeting children and an Asian woman on a packed peak-hour train.
Ms Soto said she initially paid no attention to the woman.
Natalie Soto said the incident on the train was by far the worst she had encountered. Photo: Facebook
“I didn’t really take any notice until she turned around and looked at me and said ‘get that dirty wog off the train, she’s giving me a headache’,” Ms Soto said.
“I thought ‘okay, this is about me’,” she said.
But Ms Soto’s fellow passengers soon came to her defence.
That’s when Ms Soto started recording the scene on her camera phone.
“It’s not English. Why should we have to listen to f—ing rambling,” the woman can be heard saying on the recording Ms Soto posted to Facebook.
“Because we are a multicultural country,” a young woman fires back as she swivels around in her seat in view of Ms Soto’s camera phone.
“Are we?” the blonde woman says.
“Unless you’re Aboriginal, you have come from another country to live here. We’re all from different cultures,” the young woman responds.
“Yes, just look at the carriage,” Ms Soto replies, referring to her fellow passengers.
“We speak English in this country. If you can’t speak it in public don’t speak it [sic] at all,” the blonde woman said.
The woman seemed to be taken aback that Ms Soto responded in English, the 20-year-old said.
“Lucky for you I can speak multiple languages and I can understand exactly what’s going on,” Ms Soto said.
“Speak it in your own home, don’t speak it in public,” the blonde woman responded.
“Does it make you uncomfortable?” Ms Soto asks.
“Yeah it does,” the woman responded.
“I think you really need to question yourself,” Ms Soto said.
“Do you want me to speak my f—ing language and see how you f—ing like it?” the blonde woman says.
“So her speaking another language is not okay but you saying the c-word in front of children is okay,” said the same young female passenger who spoke up earlier.
She was referring to a comment made by the blonde woman before the recording had started, according to Ms Soto.
The Australian born retail assistant, born to a Chilean mother and German father, said it was not the first time she had been called a “wog” or copped unpleasant comments from strangers who overheard her speaking Spanish.
But her encounter on the train was by far the most aggressive, she said.
“It has never been such a public outburst. There was so much anger there,” she said.
“It was definitely a slap in the face.”
Ms Soto said she didn’t film the woman to shame her, but to highlight the everyday racism she believed was an enduring problem that needed to be addressed.
“The point was to show people that this is a very real issue in Australia. It’s not just me. It’s more than that,” Ms Soto said.
“But I know people like her [the blonde woman on the train] are just a minority of really small minded, bigoted and [prejudiced] people. It’s really comforting to know that,” she said.
She was also heartened by the response from her fellow passengers’ response.
“I didn’t get to speak to or thank the beautiful girl who stood up for me. She was lovely.
“I’d really like to find her and say thanks,” she said.
The young man sitting next to her had also cheered her up, telling her he thought Spanish was a beautiful language, Ms Soto said.
“He said: ‘Don’t ever let someone tell you the way you are is a bad thing’,” she said.
A Sydney Trains staff member has been in contact with the 20-year-old regarding the incident.
Ms Soto is also planning to make a formal complaint to police.
Update: Natalie Soto finds her defender
The “lovely” girl who stuck up for Ms Soto during the tense confrontation is 19-year-old university study Nikki Strong.
Ms Strong reached out to Ms Soto after seeing news reports of the incident on Friday evening and the two women, both psychology undergraduates, have bonded over the experience.
“We definitely want to meet up. We’ve found we have a lot in common,” Ms Strong said.
The 19-year-old said she had on occasion heard offensive comments during train trips, but nothing as vehement as Thursday’s incident.
“When I started sticking up for Natalie she called me a c— and said she was going to spit on me and my boyfriend,” Ms Strong said.
“There were children … under five years old … sitting literally five metres from us,” she said.
Ms Strong said she was driven to defend Natalie because she couldn’t stand the idea of a carriage full of people sitting in silence as one of their number was the target of racial slurs.
“Someone had to say something,” she said.
“I honestly just felt really bad that it happened to Natalie, and I hope people can learn from this and acknowledge that we live in a multicultural nation and have to respect people’s languages,” she said.
A PERTH motorist has uploaded a shocking video of a road rage incident in which she is racially abused and intimidated by a TNT courier driver.
The video which is just over one-minute long was recorded on Thursday and uploaded to the TNT — The People Network Facebook page on Friday morning.
The footage shows the truck driver leaning into the woman’s car through her open driver’s window and swearing in her face.
At one point he asks her: “What f***ing land are you from?”.
He then goes on to ask her if she is “f***ing Arab or something”.
He also asks if she is a “f***ing Muslim c*** are ya?”.
The man also hit his fist on the woman’s windscreen.Source:Supplied
The truck driver puts up his middle finger to the woman he has verbally attacked.Source:Supplied
In posts to her Facebook page and the TNT’s Facebook page the woman said the driver’s “big truck” had “rear ended” her two-door Holden Astra “several times” before the recorded confrontation.
In the video the confrontation quickly gets heated with the man calling the woman a number of sexist expletives.
The exchange lasts some time before the man walks away from the car making rude hand gestures.
But before the video stops, he returns to the woman’s car and smacks his fist on the glass of her front window.
She posted underneath the video on the company’s page: “I have damages to my car that require compensation”.
A TNT spokeswoman confirmed to PerthNow they were aware of the video “depicting one of its drivers” involved in the altercation.
“TNT is investigating the matter and is in the process of contacting the driver involved and will take appropriate action,” she said.
“TNT Australia expects its entire staff to behave in a courteous and professional manner at all times.”
In the woman’s posts to Facebook she said TNT have called her and been told their investigators are onto it.
“TNT definitely know about it,” she said on her Facebook page.
“Have lots of people calling me today to deal with this but TNT have been really good and I’m just trying to sort my thoughts and my processes out.
“Paperwork and affidavits to organise and notarise docs etc.
“Thanks for the lovely messages.”
PerthNow has contacted the woman who uploaded the video for comment. Originally published as ‘What f***ing land are you from?’
A Chinese-Australian woman subjected to a slew of racial abuse on a Sydney bus on Wednesday pleaded for help from the driver but says no one came to her aid.
Lindsay Li was waiting in Willoughby for the citybound 273 bus at lunchtime on Wednesday when she says an older woman came up to her, spat on her and struck her with her shopping trolley, before pushing ahead of her to get on to the bus when it pulled up.
Terrified: Lindsay Li. Photo: Facebook
When the woman reeled around on the bus and began throwing racist insults at Ms Li, the younger woman pulled out her phone and began filming.
The woman was “screaming in a racial tirade, just calling me every name under the sun,” Ms Li told Fairfax Media.
“I’m feeling so threatened at this point … I’ve gone to the bus driver you need to stop and call the police. And he has just completely ignored me and kept driving and I’m screaming at him going you need to stop the bus now.”
No one intervened, Ms Li said.
“I was completely terrified. No one was standing up for me. This woman was so unstable I thought she could physically attack me at any time,” Ms Li said.
The woman bears a striking resemblance to woman caught on video shouting racist abuse at a Chinese-Australian couple in a Sydney park in August.
This woman hurled abuse at Lindsay Li on the bus.
“This woman came up to me at the bus stop and proceeded to spit on me and strike me with her trolley … then just went off at me with her racist tirade!” Ms Li wrote in a comment below the post.
In the video, the older woman calls Ms Li a “f—ing ugly f—ing chink” and accuses her of selling drugs.
“We all know what you are, China … Take your f—ing language and piss off, f—ing chink,” she says.
“I’m Jewish from Israel and you are f—ing nothing.”
Ms Li doesn’t respond during the video.
“I was just sitting there waiting for the bus, and this woman crosses the road, she approaches me, like she’s seen me as a target,” Ms Li said.
When she got off at her usual stop in Crows Nest the older woman followed and continued her screaming rant.
Ms Li was so shocked she reported the incident to the police.
NSW police police confirmed they had received a report of alleged offensive behaviour on a Sydney bus on Wednesday and the incident was under investigation.
“It just makes you lose a little bit more faith in humanity,” Ms Li wrote on her facebook page.
State Transit said racism on our buses in any way, shape or form was not condoned, according to a statement from a spokeswoman.
“We will be investigating this matter further and if required, will take appropriate action.
“State Transit works closely with the Police Transport Command and Police Local Area Commands to reduce instances of antisocial behaviour on our buses. We encourage customers to report acts of racism to NSW Police,” the statement read.
A woman with a strikingly similar appearance, accent and voice as the woman in Ms Li’s video made headlines in August when footage emerged of her launching a racist tirade at a Chinese-Australian couple eating lunch in Wynyard Park.
The woman accused the couple of “taking all the jobs” and demanded they give up their seat for another Anglo-Saxon woman because they were Asian.
Ms Li’s video had been viewed more than 1600 times by Thursday afternoon.
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