Author’s Note: This crime happened over ten-years ago (I am writing an update after performing “maintenance” on this post in 2025) . Technology has moved on and we are no longer limited to YouTube – or its inconsistent vagaries – to keep us abreast of current (or even historical) events. Needless to say, YouTube “removed” the version of this assault from their platform – presumably to “protect” the assailant. In what sounds like a Cantonese accent – this man states “punch me!” – when explaining to the onlookers why he is defending himself. Indeed, an onlooker asks “What do mean ‘he punched you’?” I explain below why I think the video was “cut” to give the false impression the Chinese man is the aggressor. Yesterday evening, whilst exploring the latest news, I encountered this video again and filmed a copy with my mobile phone – and uploaded it here – once I realised YouTube had censored the original video. According to news reports, the old (68-year old) man in video was arrested by the Police – probably once he regained consciousness – whilst an appeal was made for the younger man (who had immediately left the scene). The next news coverage I can find dates from May 1st, 2014 (Arrest after Aldgate East Tube fight footage released) which reads:
‘Police have arrested a man on suspicion of affray after releasing video footage of a fight on board a Tube train at Aldgate East Undergound Station.
British Transport Police arrested the 29-year-old, from Dagenham, on Wednesday, April 30.
He was interviewed and released on bail until Thursday, May 22, pending further enquiries.
The alleged fight broke out on a District line train.
Det Con Lawrence Murphy thanked media and the public for their help with the initial appeal for information.’
Both men appear to have been arrested – but only the elderly man is mentioned as being detained under ‘suspicion of common assault, resisting arrest and committing a public order offence”. The elderly man must have taken exception to being blamed by the Police for the attack he suffered. Whatever the case, no further data regarding this incident is readily available online. I suppose with a proper Court number – providing it went to Court – details could be found, but for some reason the media suddenly lost interest in reporting the outcome. Perhaps a “D Notice” was issued. ACW (6.3.2025)
An academic friend of mine (who monitors levels of street violence in the USA and UK), drew my attention to this disturbing footage. It appears to show an elderly Chinese man involved in an altercation with a young man on London’s Tube network (the District Line – to be precise). Of course, as I was not there, I have no way of knowing exactly what happened, but I can offer some investigative speculation.
- The video may have been deliberately ‘cut’ when uploaded, so that the incident looked like a crazy old man foolishly attacking a young man. If this is so, then there might be a much longer video showing the full incident. I think this is the case, because it would seem odd for someone to just start videoing at the point the film begins.
- If the old man is ‘Chinese’, as I suspect, he would in all likelihood be from Hong Kong when it was a British controlled colony (prior to 1997). This type of person is usually very culturally conservative, and not inclined to misbehave in public, or get involved in matters that do not concern them. On the whole they are very quiet and self-contained.
- When asked what he was doing, the old man (in a heavily accented voice) appears to say ‘punch me’ – implying the man he was tackling had just assaulted him. If this was true, then the old man was acting in self-defence. I would further surmise that due to the level of anti-Chinese racism in the UK, no one in the Tube came to his aid
- What happens next appears to racially motivated violence of the most extreme kind, which sees the young man repeatedly punch the old man about the head (as the old man remained seated whilst the young man was standing), and then knee him in the the face. It is obvious from the footage that old man is unconscious a this point – again, no one in the carriage comes to hi aid.
- Self-defence law in the UK permits a British citizen only to exercise enough reasonable force to nullify an attack – any force beyond this measure is considered the crime of ‘assault’. Even if the old man was in the wrong (and something tells me he wasn’t), what happened to him was a crime.
- Press reports suggest that the police arrested a 68 year old man and charged him with assault – obviously the old Chinese man. The young man at the time of the incident had not been apprehended by the police. This seems to me that an old Chinese man was the victim of racially motivated violence, but was himself arrested and charged by the police – presumably after he had regained consciousness.
Blaming the Chinese victim of racially motivated hate-crime is not new in the UK. In 2005, for instance, Mi Gao Huang Chen was beaten to death on a Manchester Street by a rabid gang of White and Black British teenagers. His partner – Eileen Jia – who tried to protect his body, sustained terrible injuries in the attack. When she awoke handcuffed to a hospital bed, she was informed that she was being charged with ‘assaulting’ minors.
Further Reading:
VICTIM OF RACIST ATTACK FACING CHARGE
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 