10 July 2024

Amid a surge of crimes being reported against Asian people in New Zealand, a Chinese-born school student was brutally attacked on an Auckland public bus on the morning of June 28.

The 16-year-old, Jason, was left with severe facial injuries after being beaten with a metal rod by a woman yelling racial slurs. The teenager had three teeth knocked out and another two damaged in the unprovoked attack, which has prompted an outpouring of anger and concern across social media.

Jason was taking the bus to Panmure in South Auckland when “a woman started verbally abusing me and then immediately started to physically abuse me,” he told the New Zealand Herald. “I was just listening to music, scrolling my phone, and then it happened. She just stood up and hit me.”

Jason said although there were more than 10 people on the bus, only one intervened. “A 75-year-old gentleman at the back helped me to control the woman and get in the middle,” he explained. The woman jumped off at the bus stop and ran away, leaving behind her metre-long rod.

Jason has lived in New Zealand for seven years and said this was the first time he had experienced a racially motivated attack. He described the woman as in her 40s, with a large build and dressed in all black. “I feel a bit fearful, this time it was a stick, next time who knows what’s going to happen, maybe a knife?” he said. Police have made an arrest.

Transport Minister Simeon Brown said he would seek advice on whether “proper procedures” were followed by Auckland Transport staff. “It seems to me listening to Jason, the bus driver’s priority was continuing his route …We don’t want this happening again,” he declared. A First Union spokesman replied that drivers are not trained like police officers to intervene in violent confrontations and put themselves at risk.

The focus on the actions of the driver is an attempt to divert attention from the issue of racist attacks on Chinese and other Asian people.

In February, NZ Police reported that the number of “hate” incidents formally reported to authorities increased by 12 percent between 2022 and 2023. Race-motivated abuse made up 83 percent of 9,351 reported incidents, and more than a third targeted people of Asian descent.

By John Braddock, Socialist Equality Group
Original url https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/07/08/utuu-j08.html

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