Uber rider banned after racist remarks against Fil Am driver

From Flickr Creative Commons by Glenn Beltz

Uber banned rider Kyle Harrington earlier this week for verbally assaulting his Flipinio American driver outside of Los Angeles Airport (LAX), NBC News reports. The driver, Raph David, captured a video of Harrington and his two children after bystander Stella Hwang came to his defense.

(Warning: The video contains many expletives.)

According to David, Harrington attempted to sit in the front passenger seat when he arrived at the pick-up point. Because Uber’s COVID-19 policy prohibits passengers from sitting in such close proximity to the driver, David informed Harrington that he would have to sit in the back.

“All of a sudden, he got mad because I couldn’t let him sit in the front seat,” David said, according to KTLA. “He just slammed my door, saying, ‘I don’t give a —.’”

As David began unloading Harrington and his children’s luggage, the passenger began hurling racist remarks at him. “He said, ‘Asian piece of s—, you might not even have a paper here in America. Go back to your country,’” David said.

At that point, Hwang stepped in. In the video that David recorded and she later shared on Twitter, she berated Harrington, who responded with several sexist insults. “Let me guess: you’re not married,” Harrington said to her.

“Who cares?” she responded.

As Harrington turned to leave, Hwang turned to his children. “Boys, I hope you don’t turn out like him,” she told them. “Your dad is a mother— racist! How does that feel?”

When a police officer later arrived on the scene, no names were taken, according to David. “He told me to leave right away, like no reports, no nothing,” David said to NBC News.

According to David, when he first reported the incident to Uber, the company told him that though they would prevent the two from being matched in the future, Harrington would not be banned. However, after NBC News reached out to Uber for a comment, the company said it had banned Harrington and his son, whose account Harrington had used that night, from the app.

“Uber does not tolerate racism or hate in any form, against any community. When one community is being attacked, we are all being attacked. We are shocked and saddened by the recent increase in anti-Asian hate, particularly when it affects a driver or rider,” an Uber spokesperson said to NBC News. “In this case, we have banned the riders for violating our policies and have been in touch with Mr. David to support him after this upsetting incident.”

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