An American woman was arrested in the US state of Texas on Thursday after a video of her racially abusing and assaulting Indian-American women went viral on social media.
The incident took place in Dallas, Texas on Wednesday night. The attacker, who claims to be a Mexican born in the US, is seen asking a group of Indian-American women to “go back to India”.
“I hate you fu***** Indians. All these Indians, come to America for a better life. …You come to our country and want everything for free. I am a Mexican-American and I was born here,” said the accused who was later identified as Esmeralda Upton.
A racist woman in Texas harasses a group of Indian people just for having accents.
This behavior is absolutely repulsive. pic.twitter.com/ZvX3mdQ6Wm
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) August 25, 2022
One of the Indian-American women tried to reason with the attacker and asked, “What makes you think that we are not American?” To this Esmeralda replied, “It’s the way you speak. Because I am Mexican-American and I speak English.”
She continued with her racist slant saying, “If life is so great in India, why the ***k are you in America.”
Esmeralda even assaulted the Indian-American and asked them to turn off the camera. The video of the horrific incident which has since gone viral has attracted a lot of attention on social media.
“This is so scary. She actually had a gun and wanted to shoot because these Indian American women had accents while speaking English. Disgusting. This awful woman needs to be prosecuted for a hate crime,” Democratic Party activist Reema Rasool said while posting a video on Twitter.
The Plano Police said that they have arrested the accused on charges of “Assault Bodily Injury” and “Terroristic Threats.” She is being held on a total bond amount of USD 10,000.
“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 USD 10,000. A jail photo is attached,” the police said in a statement.
Police further said that this incident is currently under investigation as a hate crime. “Additional charges may be forthcoming,” the statement added.