UNITED STATES. Texas: A woman is heard shouting racist epithets at a group of Indian-American women in the restaurant’s parking lot in a video that is going viral on social media. The incident occurred outside the Sixty Vines restaurant in Plano, Texas.
The woman is shown hitting one person in the face, swiping at the phones of two of the women who were documenting the incident, and threatening to shoot them while reaching into her bag in the five-and-a-half-minute video.
Due to her uncontrollable prejudice and hatred of Indian people, this Texas woman assaults four women on the street for having an accent.
The woman was detained on Thursday and charged with assault, bodily harm, and making terroristic threats.
She was identified as Esmeralda Upton in a press release by the Plano Police Department. She was being held under a bail of $10,000.
The incident is being investigated and is being treated as a hate crime; according to the press release, more charges could be filed.
Esmeralda Upton of Plano was taken into custody by Plano Police Detectives on Thursday, August 25, 2022, at around 3:50 p.m. She is being held on a $10,000 total bond for two charges: assault causing bodily harm and making terrorist threats.
Return to India
A post titled “Happened to some Indian friends last night in Plano” on Reddit posted the footage late on Wednesday night after it had gone viral on Facebook.
Upton can be heard asking the women to “get back to India” in the first moments of the footage, which follows the altercation.
The woman continues by claiming to be Mexican American and asserting that the other four women are not Americans.
Upton is heard screaming in the video, “You f***ing Indians are everywhere. Everywhere I go. Why the f**k are y’all here if life in India was so wonderful?”
One of the women on the opposing side of the argument responded with her remark. Why don’t you go back to Mexico if you’re Mexican, the person behind the camera is heard saying.
After striking one of the other women with her fist, Upton, wearing a black dress, is seen reaching for the phone being used to record her. Upton can repeatedly be seen hitting the person’s phone. Then, as she approaches another woman, she goes into her purse and threatens to shoot the other woman if she doesn’t turn off her phone.
Texas is not a place for hatred
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which identified Upton as “the alleged assailant,” issued a statement on Thursday that urged law authorities to look into the incident and file charges against Upton.
Executive head of CAIR Faizan Syed said, “The degree of hostility and alleged physical abuse against four Indian-American ladies in Plano is simply awful. We urge law enforcement to look into the incident as a possible hate crime because “this kind of hatred has no place in North Texas.”
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