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It is one of those everyday scenes that many people experience again and again in Corona times: people who do not adhere to the rules of distance or the mask requirement, sometimes even react aggressively when they are made aware of this themselves.

A case from San Francisco made headlines, also because there is a video of the incident that is circulating on social media.

You can see a group of young women mocking an Uber driver and then consciously coughing at him.

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The driver, who the police call him Subhakar K., had initially asked the young women to put on masks, as this was compulsory in Uber taxis.

When the women did not comply, he declared that he did not want to promote them.

An argument ensued in the course of which the young woman became verbally aggressive, coughed at him, tore off his mask and finally sprayed pepper spray in his car.

Numerous attacks on Asian-looking citizens

The incident occurred on Sunday March 7th.

At the end of the following week, the US police had the identities of the young women, whose leader - known as Malaysia K., 24 years old - was arrested a little later.

K. is accused of several points, including harassment, assault and attack with a corrosive chemical.

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The incident has sparked widespread coverage in the US and UK media, also because it may be part of a whole series of hate crimes against Asians and Asian-looking people in the United States.

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Attacks - assaults, vandalism and so-called hate crimes - are reported from all over San Francisco, but also from Oakland, where a 74-year-old man with Asian roots was ambushed and killed.

In February, the 84-year-old Vichar R., who came from Thailand and lived in San Francisco, died after an attack on the street: the senior was knocked down by an unknown person.

After his death, the city's Asian community demonstrated and called for more protection.

Experts point to increasing anti-Asian resentment since the beginning of the corona crisis, which had its roots in Wuhan (China).

Ex-US President Donald Trump had persistently referred to the Covid-19 as the "China virus".

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It is (still) open whether the attack on Subhakar K. was also shaped by such prejudices.

K. himself stated in an interview with the “Guardian” that he had been insulted by the young women.

He also stopped at a gas station so that his customers could get masks.

Every imaginable insult

After their return, however, the situation escalated.

"Before the girl came back with her mask on, I had to hear that they would shoot me in the face and that their friends and cousins ​​could call me," said Khadka.

“They also talked about how small my testicles are because of my race,” but the N-word, a common verbal devaluation of African-Americans, was also used.

Activists called for protests in San Francisco after the death of Vichar R.

Source: AFP

Only after these massive insults did K. turn on the camera installed in his car.

Another of the young women, named by the police as Arna K., commented on the incident after the media reports on social media.

Accordingly, she and her friends were afraid that the driver would throw them out of his car on the street.

Meanwhile, the Uber transport service expressed its dismay at the incident and issued a ban on transporting the women.

In the US, over 500,000 people have already died from illness caused by the corona virus.