On Wednesday, the Boston transit police said that they had taken a 16-year-old male into custody in connection with an incident that occurred on the city’s subway system one month ago and involved a group of youngsters racially harassing an Asian American rider.
The arrest was confirmed by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Transit Police on Twitter. They stated that the youngster might face charges of unarmed assault for the aim of robbing and intimidating another person.
The assault that took place on the red line of the MBTA on September 21 at approximately 10 p.m. was captured on film by the victim, Vivian Dang, who is 25 years old. Her video was seen millions of times on TikTok, and a week later, she told NBC News that a group of boys on the train had cornered her and ridiculed her in a mimic Chinese accent, asking, “Can I get some dumplings?” and “Can I get some ramen with the egg?” and made other racial comments. Her video had gone viral on TikTok.
She informed NBC that the adolescents, upon initially entering the vehicle, made the announcement that they were come to perform “a mass robbery” and attempted to rip a passenger’s shoes off of their feet. She stated that they followed Dang whenever she changed cars on the train.
“They were starting to say stuff like, ‘Don’t let her leave,'” Dang remembered in the past tense. “At that point, I was beginning to feel a reasonable amount of fear.”
After hearing the news about the arrest, Dang continued his conversation with NBC News.
“It has a sour and sweet taste. It was a young child. The phrase “you don’t want to get them in trouble” was spoken by her. “But, once again, their actions led to this.”
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which is believed to have begun in China, there has been a rise in the number of hate crimes directed towards Asian people. Despite the increase in reported cases, former President Donald Trump referred to the illness using terms that were rife with racial undertones, such as “the China virus” and “kung flu.”
According to a study that was conducted by Pew Research the previous year, over one third of Asian Americans said that they had altered their daily routines over the course of the previous year due to fear of threats or attacks.
