A video circulating on social media over the weekend shows a group of people brutally beating an Asian man inside a lower Manhattan subway station.
The video, which appeared to be filmed at the Fulton Street station, showed the man being pummeled by two men as a third holds him up as if a human punching bag.
One of the men rounds up and slaps the man in the face. His body appears to go limp until a second man delivers a round of punches to his head. The group cheers and applauds the beating.
It was not clear Sunday night whether the incident was being investigated as a hate crime against an Asian New Yorker — a persistent problem since the onset of the pandemic, which some politicians labeled the “China Virus.”
Some claimed the attack was a case of vigilante justice. Cops said they are looking into the video.
The footage was shared by the “Asian Crime Report” Twitter account Sunday and retweeted by the NYPD Asian Hate Crimes Task Force with a callout for the victim to reach out.
However, the full-length video was posted to another account Friday with the accusation that the man being beaten had tried to sexually assault a girl on the train.
In that video, someone can be heard shouting at the man: “You touching girls, you touching girls — little sisters and all that, moms and everything. You filthy, son.”
One of the men who slapped the straphanger can be heard saying that he has a daughter before his hand makes contact with the man’s face.
“I got a daughter,” he said. “If the cops lock me up, I’m paying my own bail.”
Police said late Sunday that they are investigating the incident.
* Article from: The New York Post
