By: AswathyNair
THE West Midlands Police has arrested a 53-year-old man from Erdington after a video showed a British Asian taxi driver in Birmingham being racially abused.
Officers took the man into custody on suspicion of “racially aggravated public order offence”.
The police had launched a probe after the video showed a passenger abusing Abid Satti and calling him a “f****** Muslim c***”.
The man can be heard asking: “Who do you think you are?
“You think you’re something special — Pakistan?”
Murtaza Ali Shah✔@MurtazaViews
West Midlands police start investigation after Pakistani taxi driver Abid Mustafa subjected to racial abuse.
‘You’re from Pakistan. U think you’re ‘f….g’ special. No wonder the Indians are bombing you. This is
England & we’ll blow u out the f****** water.’ #BlackLivesMatter
Satti, 39, remained calm and composed even as the passenger kept swearing at him through out the clip, which went viral with over a million views on Twitter.
The father-of-four said that he was told to “go back to your own country”.
According to Satti, the man blabbered: “You’re from Pakistan, and you’ve come here to rob our country, take our money to back home. You guys are terrorists.”
The incident occurred as Mustafa picked up the passenger from Erdington, and he insisted on sitting in the front seat, ignoring anti-virus norms.
Satti, who had been involved in transporting Covid-19 samples for the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, warned the man he would upload the footage on social, but the slurry rant continued.
Satti said it was “not easy to keep calm”, adding that people in his profession “see this quite often”.
He hoped the impact of the video, which had been recorded on May 15, would encourage authorities to install CCTV in all taxis.
The West Midlands Police said: “We’re aware of a video circulating online that shows a taxi driver being racially abused — we can confirm that we’re investigating.
“We understand that experiencing a hate crime is extremely distressing and upsetting. We are proud to police our diverse communities and will take action against those who commit a hate crime.”
