As calling ICE on immigrants becomes the order of the day, a Virginia Immigrant man attempted to tread that same path while arguing with Latino employees at a tire shop. The confrontation was caught on camera and shared on Reddit. The clip opened up with a female staff member and the Hindi-speaking man in a tense exchange.
Although their conversation is incomprehensible from the camera’s initial position, the issue soon escalated and the camera drew in. “I called the police b**ch. I’d call the f***ing ICE,” the man yelled at the female employee who was muttering something in Spanish as she walked off.
He soon faced the person recording the clip asking, “What, are you going to do something?” The man behind the camera is heard explaining, “You’re her sister,” possibly alluding to the fact that they are both immigrants. The comment however angered the customer as he responded, “F**k you.”
When the lady staff asked the agitated customer to leave the shop, he replied “Don’t worry, I’m leaving.” He continued ranting, “These motherf** thinking they’re gangsters and sh*t. F**k that!”
As the man entered his car, another staff member of the shop approached him, in an attempt to de-escalate the situation. The two briefly exchanged greetings and began conversing in Hindi appearing to criticize the other workers.
The video has drawn attention online with many netizens criticizing the man for trying to intimidate others by calling the feared immigration authorities. One Reddit user offered a translation of the Hindi exchange between the customer and the second employee.
The netizen wrote, “In the end, he says ‘Baath karne ki tameez nahi hai,’ which translates in Hindi/Urdu ‘they don’t have manners to talk.’ He also said ‘benchod’ and other things before. The sheer audacity to be an immigrant himself and to threaten others with ICE.”
A second observer played out a possible scenario where the customer suffers the consequences of calling ICE. “Calls ICE and gets arrested with them probably while screaming, ‘I’m one of the good ones,’” the comment read.
Another Redditor mocked that the man didn’t look within before making threats. “So an immigrant that looks like bin Laden is calling ICE on Mexicans ….. oh, the irony!” the user mocked. A third person chimed in, “ICE would just as soon take that guy to El Salvador too. What a moron.” A last comment read, “Ice is gonna take his ass too.”
This scenario echoes the popular saying, “those who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”