An NYC man tried to forcibly remove Asian-American nurse from the subway\, police say

An Asian-American nurse was on a subway train in New York Sunday when a man approached him making discriminatory statements, police told NBC News.

According to police, the man then grabbed the nurse by his wrist and shoulder and tried to remove him from the train.

"Hey Chinaman, you're infected," the man said, according to police. "You need to move to a different car. I'm going to beat this Chinese n------ up."Advertisement

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The 30-year-old nurse was uninjured and refused medical attention, according to NBC News, while the suspect fled.

The New York Police Department's Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the incident, according to NBC News.

The incident comes as Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders across the country face an uptick in racist harassment and attacks.

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Over the past month alone, the group Stop AAPI Hate has received close to 1,500 reports of anti-Asian incidents, ranging from verbal harassment to physical assault, Manjusha Kulkarni, executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, told Business Insider in April.

On April 21, over two dozen Senate Democrats have signed a letter to US President Donald Trump concerning the rise in harassment and hate crimes against people of Asian descent amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The letter stresses that public officials need to "counter the mistaken belief that there is any link between the virus and a person's ethnicity."Advertisement

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The use of the terms "Chinese virus" and "Wuhan virus," deployed in conservative media and by the president himself, may contribute to the stigma against Asians and members of the AAIP community, the officials said in the letter.

Read the original article on Insider