New York police have launched an investigation after a family said they faced a hate-filled tirade from a couple on a train. Speaking with NBC New York, Liz Edelkind said the incident happened when she was going back home with her family and some friends after watching a New York Knicks game at Madison Square Garden in December.
A short clip of the incident, posted to social media, shows a man on the train who is repeatedly yelling “Look straight, don’t look at me.”
“Don’t f**king look at me,” the passenger can be heard saying. “These f**king foreigners ain’t taking over my f**king country.”
SHARE!!!EXPOSE THE RACISTS!
This is a hate attack that happened ron #LongIsland this week 1/10/2022 to a family and a 10 yr old, while in the #LIRR Train.Identified as Kristen Digesaro boyfriend Justin likerman both work @ HuntingtonEmpireToyota631-364-0172#LongIsland #HateCrime pic.twitter.com/mWT9nv5YHS— Osman Canales (@Osman_C1) January 12, 2022
Edelkind was riding the Long Island Rail Road train with her 10-year-old son and her husband, as well as two friends, when the encounter happened. The New York mother said she first asked some passengers to move for her group so they can have a seat. A rowdy passenger and a woman who was accompanying him on the train allegedly followed up by yelling at the group.
“The couple started to verbally attack me, calling me curse words, immigrant, that I don’t pay taxes, that I have no rights in this country,” Edelkind said, adding that the pair were triggered by her accent and skin color. “How dare they assume because I look or sound different that I am not a U.S. citizen.”
The belligerent couple are also accused of physically attacking the group.
“They threw beer at us. My pastor and her husband, and my husband, got in the way to protect me,” Edelkind said.
They disgraced passengers left the train after a conductor was called. A lawyer for the employer of the man and woman said the pair have been fired from their jobs after the incident.
