’Go back to India’: Texas woman threatens, assaults Indians, arrested
Mangalore Today News Network
Texas, Aug 26, 2022: A video that is being shared across social media shows a woman outside the Sixty Vines restaurant in Texas’ Plano yelling racist remarks at a group of Indian-American women in the restaurant’s parking lot.
In the five-and-a-half minute video, the woman is seen striking one person in the face, swiping at the phones of two of the women filming the incident, and then threatening to shoot them while reaching into her bag.
The woman, identified as Esmeralda Upton in a press release by the Plano Police Department, was arrested on Thursday and charged with assault, bodily injury, and terroristic threats. She was being held on a $10,000 bond.
A racist woman in Texas harasses a group of Indian people just for having accents.
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) August 25, 2022
This behavior is absolutely repulsive. pic.twitter.com/ZvX3mdQ6Wm
An investigation is currently underway, and the incident is being treated as a hate crime, with the release indicating that additional charges may be forthcoming.
On Thursday, August 25, 2022, at approximately 3:50 p.m., Plano Police Detectives arrested Esmeralda Upton of Plano on one charge of Assault Bodily Injury and one for Terroristic Threats and is being held on a total bond amount of $10,000.
ASSAULT ARREST
— Plano Police (Texas) (@PlanoPoliceDept) August 25, 2022
On Thursday, August 25, 2022, at approximately 3:50 p.m., Plano Police Detectives arrested Esmeralda Upton of Plano on one charge of Assault Bodily Injury and one for Terroristic Threats and is being held on a total bond amount of $10,000. A jail photo is attached. pic.twitter.com/cEj9RwWdt1
The video was shared on Facebook late Wednesday night and went viral on Reddit on Thursday in a post titled "Happened to some Indian friends last night in Plano." The video begins shortly after the altercation and shows Upton telling the women to "go back to India."
The woman then goes on to claim that she is Mexican American and says the group of four women aren’t American.
"Everywhere I f***ing go you f***ing Indians are everywhere," Upton can be heard saying in the video. "If life was so great in India, why the f**k are y’all here?"
One of the women on the other side of the confrontation fired back with her own comment.
"If you are Mexican, why don’t you go back to Mexico," the individual behind the camera can be heard saying.
Upton in the black dress is then seen swiping at one of the other women with her fist and then reaches for the phone recording her. Upton can be seen striking the person’s phone multiple times. She then reaches into her purse while approaching another woman, saying, "Turn the goddamn phone off or I swear to god I’ll shoot your a**."
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a statement on Thursday, saying the organisation called on law enforcement to investigate and bring charges against Upton, who was described by CAIR as "the alleged assailant."
“The level of vitriol and alleged physical assault against four Indian-American women in Plano is truly appalling,” said Faizan Syed, executive director of CAIR. “This type of hate has no place in North Texas, and we call on law enforcement to investigate this incident as a hate crime.”
Courtesy: India Today