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Who is Esmi Upton, seen assaulting four Indians?

Who is Esmi Upton, seen assaulting four Indians?
Who is Esmi Upton, seen assaulting four Indians?

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Trigger Warming: Racism, Physical Violence, Verbal Abuse

A group of Indian-Americans were physically, and verbally abused in Plano, Texas (US).

The incident took place when four Indian-American women were coming back from a dinner. A Mexican-American woman came to these women, and started abusing them for their racial identity. The women identified as Esmi Upton said,

“Go back to India. You curry-a**ed people are ruining this country”.

The four women started recording her while she continued her slurs. The assaulter engaged in physical violence, hitting at least three of the four women. The assaulter threatened to break the camera if the women didn’t stop recording. Esmi Upton started recording the Indian-American women and she said,

“Everywhere I … go, you Indians are … everywhere. If life was so great in India, why you are here,”

After a few minutes, Esmi Upton started apologising and wanted to have a conversation. One of the four women, called the Plano Police, and stayed on the phone. The situation got out of hand, when she threatened to shoot one of the women if she didn’t turn the camera off.

In the video she can be seen to pulling out something which resembles a gun.

In an image of her car’s number plate gone viral, there is sticker with ‘Texas Gun Experience’. So, the threat of shooting could have been very real.

The Plano Police reached the location within minutes, and saved the four Indian-American from the dreadful situation.

The incident took in the parking lot of Sixty Vines, Plano, TX.

Esmi Upton has been arrested on assaulting charges, and terroristic threats.

Who is Esmi Upton?

The assaulter is named Esmeralda Armendarez-Upton, and is a realtor for California Federal Bank. Additionally, she is also a parishioner at Prince of Peace Catholic Church, in Plano.

Nahela Morales, a Mexican-American and board member of CAID-DFW, said that she was appalled by the incident, and the assaulter should learn more about the shared culture between South Asians and Mexicans.

See the original Facebook post

The four Indian women have been identified as Indrani Banerjee, Sabori Shah, Anamika Chatterjee, and Bidisha Rudra.

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Author

  • Rajeev Tyagi is an independent environmental journalist in India reporting on the intersection of science, policy and public. With over five years of experience, he has covered issues at the grassroots level and how climate change alters the lives of the most vulnerable in his home country of India. He has experience in climate change reporting, and documentary filmmaking. He recently graduated with a degree in Science Journalism from Columbia Journalism School. When he is not covering climate stories, you’ll probably find Tyagi exploring cities on foot, uncovering quirky bits of history along the way.

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