A man and woman from New York who were caught on video hurling racist insults at a family who were riding a train with them have been arrested and charged with a hate crime, the Daily Voice reports.
Justin Likerman and Kristin Degesaro turned themselves in on Wednesday and were charged with aggravated harassment and endangering the welfare of a child. As the Daily Beast points out, New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority said the charges were brought in conjunction with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the Hate Crimes Unit.
NBC4 New York reports that Liz Edelkind said that on Jan. 10, she took the train with her husband, son, and two other adults to a Knicks basketball game at Madison Square Garden when Likerman and Digesaro began to verbally attack them due to Edelkind’s darker complexion and accent, saying her and the group were immigrants who didn’t belong in the U.S. “They threw beer at us. My pastor…her husband and my husband got in the way to protect me,” Edelkind told NBC 4.
A witness captured the incident on video, where Likerman can heard telling the group, “Look straight because I’m going to get arrested tonight,” before he threw some sort of liquid. “Don’t look at me, don’t f***ing look at me,” Likerman said repeatedly. “These f***ing foreigners ain’t taking over my country.” The couple left after someone alerted the train conductor.
Likerman and Digesaro were also recently fired from their jobs at Empire Toyota in Huntington as a result of the video.
“The two employees were suspended when we first heard about this incident,” a Facebook post from Empire Toyota read. “As our investigation just concluded, they have been terminated. The heart and soul of our labor force is extremely diverse and we value our employees beyond description. Further, our company’s deep support—financial and in-kind—of Long Island’s diverse communities is a matter of public record. We can say without hesitation that whatever occurred on that LIRR train is in no way reflective of our company, its ownership, its management team, nor its employees.”
Watch the video below:
https://twitter.com/Osman_C1/status/1481414950211969026?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1481414950211969026%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thedailybeast.com%2Flong-island-couple-justin-likerman-kristin-digesaro-arrested-for-viral-lirr-train-incident
