A Muslim bus driver was assaulted, called a ‘f*cking P*ki’, and, to cause further humiliation, the lone passenger, who refused to leave the vehicle at its designated destination, said he would ejaculate onto a photograph of the driver.
The incident occurred on the evening of February 3.
Speaking to Tell MAMA, the driver, who wishes to remain anonymous, described how the passenger, who boarded the bus in a drunken state and with an open bottle of alcohol, until the driver informed him that he could not continue the journey with the alcohol present. The passenger began to argue with the driver but then smashed the bottle on the concrete outside.
The driver then allowed the man to board despite a lack of funds on their Oyster card, having accepted their pleas that the bus was soon to finish its route.
When the bus arrived at its designated final stop, and the driver requested for the passenger to leave, the man turned aggressive and abusive, swearing at the driver and using his mobile phone to take photographs of him. The man then said he would share the photos with his friends and ‘w**k over them’, and blew kisses at the driver.
He also made crude sexual gestures with his hand towards the driver, in the hope of compounding the sense of humiliation.
The driver was then pushed when attempting to exit his driver’s cabin.
If the driver reduced the physical threat of violence by locking himself in his cabin, after being pushed, it did not, however, remove the threat of verbal abuse and threats, as the man shouted ‘f*cking P*ki’ and ‘you p***y, you’re afraid of the white man’. The perpetrator concluded their racist abuse by adding that he would ‘rip’ the driver’s head off.
The Metropolitan Police were made aware of the abuse during the incident, and, upon learning of this development from the driver, the perpetrator then fled the scene.
Tell MAMA has continued to document how the traditional racial epithet ‘P*ki’ has become a racialised way to target Muslims, irrespective of ethnic background.
Tell MAMA will be writing to the bus company in question to raise concerns about driver safety.
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