A couple went on a racist rant on the Long island railroad and unfortunately for them
were recorded doing so and as a result are experiencing some repercussions.
We'll get to those in just a minute.
But first here is a little bit of the interaction.
>> Look straight look straight look straight cause I'm gonna get arrested
tonight right now.
Look straight.
Don't look at me, don't, I'm gonna get arrested tight.
Don't, don't look at me,
Don't look at me.
>> I know it's not working.
These foreigners ain't taking over my.
>> Okay, so there you have two different couples.
So first of all, the one, the immigrant family that was the target of the rant was
Liz it'll kind was one member of it said that she was taking
the Long Island railroad with her husband's son and
two other adults to a knicks game while looking for a group of seats on the train.
Justin Lichterman and kristen dig Asaro began to verbally attack them due to
Elkins darker complexion accent.
The couple criticized the group for
being immigrants and said they didn't belong in the US.
So they were recorded doing so going on that rant.
And it turns out that, not long after apparently,
the two have been fired from their former jobs at Empire Toyota in Huntington's and
I actually found that pretty shocking both for how fast the turnaround was on that.
And the fact that people took it seriously that they were being provocative and
threatening.
We'll have more details on, the response from the family, but
to see consequences dealt out so quickly,
I certainly don't expect that based on most of the political news that we follow.
>> Yeah, So, look, there's a couple of elements to this story too,
first of all, look at what people are thinking.
So if you're a minority, you already know what you got to deal with.
If you're an immigrant you've experienced that plenty of times.
You know exactly how often that happens.
But if you're white, you might not know.
That's the stuff we have to put up with all the time.
And so they always like, it's my country, is it?
Okay, so we have to protect it from foreigners like you.
I got news for you.
I guarantee you your parents when they first came here were attacked
as foreigners taking over the country and they did.
And now it's their country and we're gonna do the same thing.
You know why?
Cuz America is not about a nationality or race or religion, it's about an idea.
Now, if you don't like that idea that we're all equal and that we could all be
Americans and we could all be citizens together with the same exact rights.
Well then move,
I'm serious move to a country that shares your point of view the top example.
I can think of, but there are many is Saudi Arabia.
They think if you're not a Saudi you're inferior.
And so they treat foreigners like dirt.
And they say you must abide by our religion, not your religion and
we are the superior race.
Did that guy would be perfect as Saudi Arabia.
I'll buy you the ticket.
Get out cuz you don't believe in the idea of America.
So just let's call them what they are because the right wing has been babied
in this country for so long.
They're poor, sensitive racist feelings.
Well, I don't share that same feeling at all.
I'm tired of getting bullied.
I'm tired of those poor people getting bullied.
He threw a beer at them because they look darker than he did.
I'm so glad he was fired.
You want that guy dealing with people with different complexions than him.
He hates them.
God knows what he's gonna do to them.
If he's willing to throw his beer on him, you think that, at the dealerships or
any other jobs they got like popcorn and drinks sometimes, etcetera.
Maybe he spits in it cuz he's a monster.
He's a piece of crap.
So I'm thrilled that he was fired.
>> Yeah, there's also just something deeply ironic about saying,
get out of my country or off my land as many people who are racist will say,
like many white people, you're not indigenous.
You have no right to this land or to this country,
it's not yours, you are literally living on stolen land.
So where do you get off telling someone else that they have absolutely no
right to be here.
It's grotesque.
I will also say, he repeatedly said, I'm gonna get arrested today.
He never, for
one moment actually thought that he was going to get arrested for doing that.
If he actually thought he was gonna get arrested for doing it,
he wouldn't have said anything, he wouldn't have done it.
But he felt very entitled.
And the reason that he said that was because he knew it was wrong.
But he also because he knew that as a white person,
it was very unlikely that he would see consequences for his own actions.
And thank God that he did because he absolutely deserved to be fired.
They absolutely deserved to be arrested.
It was disgusting what they did.
But too often these things happen and nothing happens to them.
They get off because they are white or white and upper middle class or
whatever it is and they never face those consequences and they never actually
see any harm to them as the result of the harm that they're causing to other people.
And it's horrifying and we need more people to be held accountable for
their racist actions.
>> Yeah.
>> And he turned out to be right.
In addition to losing his job, they were, they've been arrested,
charged with aggravated harassment, endangering the welfare of a child.
Charges were brought in conjunction with the hate crimes unit sort of makes sense.
>> Yeah, to Raven's point.
I bought a shirt over a decade ago that had a bunch of famous native
american wars, like Geronimo and sitting bull and
it said the original Department of Homeland Security.
>> [LAUGH] >> And so anyone who isn't native
american, who talks about how it's their country is full of crap and
by their own logic should be thrown out of the country immediately.
Where was your goddamn papers?
People who landed on the Mayfair, Right.
Did they bring papers with them?
Who gave them permission?
Nobody get the hell out.
If you're so proud of all my family traces their roots back to the Mayfair.
That means there.
By your logic, illegal aliens.
They didn't have any documents.
Get out.
Get out. Get out.
By your logic, the only people that should remain our native americans.
Do you agree, you wanna give your household native american right now?
You wanna give all your property.
There are native american and leave, then shut up.
And by the way, I'm so glad they were also arrested because if you don't,
you'll have lawlessness.
You throw a beer at a guy or a woman and their kid is there and
the law doesn't do something, we're gonna have chaos cuz eventually
the other guys are gonna throw things back and then it's gonna be Mayhem