An attack on a San Francisco Uber driver over the weekend by a passenger who allegedly refused to wear a face mask drew outrage after a video of the incident was released on Tuesday.
The incident occurred on Sunday in the city after the driver, Subhakar Khadka, picked up three women. In a 43-second video clip shot by Khadka and posted on Twitter by local media, a woman with no mask in the back of the car is seen coughing in Khadka’s face and shouting at him. Seconds later, the woman rips Khadka’s cell phone out of her hand and rips the mask off her face. She and another passenger continue to yell at the driver and threaten to beat him. Khadka says he then got out of the car before being sprayed with pepper by one of the passengers.
UBER RIDERS COUGH, ASSAULT, PEPPER SPRAY DRIVER
Subhakar driver Khadka, who is from South Asia, says he believes he was the target because of his race. He picked up three women at Bayview yesterday afternoon on Avenida San Bruno. https://t.co/Tzr7kTfyKQ pic.twitter.com/f8PiHDZ9CZ– Betty Yu (@BettyKPIX) March 9, 2021
“You are animals to treat other human beings like that,” Khadka told local media KPIX.
Khadka says he was beaten after trying to expel the group from his car for refusing to follow Uber’s masking policy, which requires passengers to wear facial coverage while traveling. Khadka, who told KPIX that he is from Nepal and has lived in the United States for eight years, also said he believes he was attacked because of his race and accent.
“If I had been another complexion, I would not have received this treatment from them. The moment I opened my mouth to speak, they realized that I am among them, so it is easy for them to intimidate me, ”he told the channel in an interview.
The incident occurs at a time when the San Francisco Bay area has attacks on elderly Asian residents and that violence against Asian Americans has increased throughout the country during the pandemic.
In a video posted on Instagram, the unmasked woman admitted she was wrong for coughing in Khadka, but said she was afraid for the safety of her and her fellow passengers because Khadka allegedly tried to expel them in an unknown area and refused to wait until that a new ride has arrived.
Both Uber and Lyft tweeted that the pilot was permanently removed from his platforms.
Although this incident did not involve the Lyft platform, the driver’s unacceptable treatment in this video forced us to permanently remove the pilot from the Lyft community. Driving in a pandemic is not easy. Please wear a mask, respect each other and be a good person.
– Lyft (@lyft) March 9, 2021
The incident, coupled with Uber’s compensation for Khadka – the company reportedly offered him only $ 20 to cover the cleaning fee, then increased to $ 120 – underscores the precarious nature of the gig economy and the limited protections offered to drivers, even when the pandemic does its job is more dangerous.
On Tuesday, Cyan Banister, one of Uber’s first investors, started a fundraiser from Gofundme for Khadka so he could remove the pepper spray residue from his car and make up for lost wages.