Footage seen by The Feed shows a man of Asian appearance being verbally harassed by a white couple in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on Sunday night.
Witnesses said the elderly Asian man had been collecting cans and bottles from an oval in Hampden Street at the time.
Cocoa said he was moving his car on Sunday night when he heard racial slurs and yelling coming from the oval near his house.
“My dad’s from Ghana and my mum’s Lebanese. I’ve had a lot of racism in my life and so when I heard that I was like ‘what is happening?’,” he told The Feed.
The 25-year-old said when he arrived at the oval, he saw a white woman and man yelling at an Asian man, who had gloves on and had been collecting cans from a public bin.
“They called him inferior and a g**p. They were in his face yelling at him to go back to his area, get out of the country, saying he’s not welcome in Australia.”
Cocoa said he told the pair to leave the man alone, but they ignored him. Another man, who can be seen in the video, is also pictured attempting to intervene.
“The Asian man said to the white dude ‘that’s not Australian’ and that tipped him over the edge. He basically ‘rushed’ him and tried to hit me and I grabbed him,” Cocoa said.
Cocoa alleged the man then kicked the bin, which hit the Asian man, causing him to fall to the ground.
Cocoa said he left after the white couple walked off but returned soon after as he heard yelling coming from the oval once again.
Cocoa’s mother called the police and his sister, Sahara, filmed what happened next.
In the video, the woman claims she works for the Federal Police. The AFP told The Feed the woman does not work for the agency.
“I go over and the Asian man was filling up his car with these big bags of cans and the [white couple] is just kicking his car, kicking him and pulling the cans out of the car,” Cocoa said.
“The Asian man wasn’t fighting back, he was just copping it. Physically, he did not retaliate at all. Even when the man held a fist up in his face and said, ‘I’m going to kill you’.”
“He told us he’d been an Australian citizen for 12 years or something and I said, ‘mate, please, you don’t need to justify yourself’.”
In a statement to The Feed, NSW Police confirmed the incident is under investigation.
“About 5.45pm, police attended an oval at Hampden Street, Paddington, after reports a 50-year-old man and a 51-year-old woman were verbally abusing another man, aged 64,” police said.
Police confirmed they received reports of the pair verbally abusing the older man, with the younger man allegedly shoving the older man.
“The older man declined to make a formal complaint; however, police have spoken to the couple involved and investigations are continuing.”
The Feed has been unable to reach the alleged perpetrators or the Asian man captured in the footage for comment.
Cocoa said he’d like people to “step up” if they see something that’s unjust.
“Don’t just be a bystander and if you do watch and you don’t want to get involved, at least call the police.”
“Be part of the solution.”
