Complaint Filed After Biased Attack Asian Woman And Child
“Voices of Diversity, April 25th, 2007” by joaquinuy is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Last week a man purportedly harassed and threatened an Asian-American woman and her daughter in a car because they were of Asian descent. This happened in Portland, Maine. Since then, the attorney general has filed a complaint against Troy Sprague, 47, the man who harassed them.
Sprague was arrested and charged for the attack last week. The complaint mentioned above would like an order preventing Sprague from future contact with the woman or her family and directing him not to breach the Maine Civil Rights Act any longer.
Sprague supposedly went up to the woman and her child in their car and yelled, “go back to your country,” and “you Chinese go back to your country,” prosecutors claim. It’s reported he then kicked her partly open window opened the window, and kicked the rearview mirror damaging it and hurting her daughter.
“We are bearing witness to an unconscionable increase in hate crimes being perpetrated against individuals of Asian descent across our nation, we will not tolerate such attacks in Maine, and we will act swiftly to address allegations like those received last week out of Portland,” said Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey.
Though there is no hate crime statute in Maine, people may still be charged with civil rights violations. The court may also consider sentencing someone who commits a crime because of a person’s race, color, religion, sex, ancestry, national origin, physical or mental disabilities, sexual orientation, or homelessness.
Police say Sprague has no housing, and it’s unclear whether he has an attorney.
This is one of many attacks against Asians. Many cities have seen an increase in Asian hate crimes since the beginning of the pandemic.
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