A New York woman was arrested outside of a nail salon Tuesday evening after she allegedly entered the business and began yelling hateful anti-Asian remarks at customers and staff and then proceeded to verbally abuse an undercover officer with the New York Police Department.
The woman, Sharon Williams, was arrested in Chinatown after allegedly directing slurs and threats of violence at the salon’s staff before exiting the building and harassing another person on the street before the plainclothes officer intervened, local CBS station WLNY reported.
“You brought the corona to this country,” Williams said, among another invective, the station reported, citing police.
According to the report, the undercover officer was part of an effort launched by the NYPD to put plainclothes police on the street in areas where high levels of anti-Asian hate incidents are occurring in an effort to stop them as they happen.
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The arrest comes amid a surge of anti-Asian hate incidents across America, with the rise attributed to rhetoric blaming Asian Americans for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Williams faces charges of harassment as a hate crime as well as aggravated harassment as a hate crime.
