DUBLIN LORD MAYOR Hazel Chu has revealed she will write to Garda Commissioner Drew Harris over an incident which saw a Chinese woman pushed into a canal last week.
In an interview with TheJournal.ie, the Green Party councillor also called on people to become “anti-racist”, suggesting the public should speak out against racism when they see such incidents happen.
Chu, whose parents emigrated to Ireland from Hong Kong in the 1970s, was speaking following reports of a number of attacks on Chinese people in Ireland in recent weeks.
Yesterday, gardaí in Cork confirmed they are investigating an assault on two men in their 20s who were allegedly attacked following taunts about Covid-19 originating in China.
That followed confirmation at the weekend that a separate garda investigation into a “racially motivated incident” is underway, after footage of a woman being shoved into the Royal Canal in Dublin 15 went viral online.
Chu said she was “surprised and shocked” when she saw a video of the latter incident on social media.
“Whatever about the racial stuff, you’re talking about an assault here. It’s not on,” she said.
“It could be anyone. It could be me, it could be your mum, it could be like my cousin, it could be a granny. She is someone’s mother, she is like a mother to a small child. It could be anyone we know being shoved into the canal by a group of teenagers.”
Chu revealed that she would contact the Garda Commissioner over the incident, as well as other complaints made about anti-social behaviour along the Royal Canal.
She was critical of the reports that gardaí did not show up to the scene after the woman involved, Shelly Xiong, contacted them when she emerged from the water.
“The very fact that Shelly had to call the guards in the first place, and have them then not show up, is not a good testament to our response,” she said.
“And the question we need to ask is, if any of us got assaulted and we call the guards and they didn’t show up, is that good enough? And it’s not.”
Despite this, Chu says she has been taken seriously any time she has complained about racist abuse.
Even before becoming Lord Mayor this year, she has been subjected to ongoing abuse on the phone and online, including well-documented attacks from individuals on the far right.
But she called on people to call out racism when such incidents occur, and to take them seriously when they see them happen.
“I think people tend to look the other way. And I don’t mean that in a bad way; I think we’ve all done it. We’ve all adopted the attitude that ‘I’m not racist so it’s okay, I wouldn’t do something like that.’
“But there’s no such thing as innocent bystanders anymore. Nowadays, things can get to a stage where it results in assault.
“You need to be more than just not racist. You need to be anti-racist.”
Chu added that combating racism needed to come from society in general, through forums such as social inclusion programmes and community events involving ethnic communities, as well as education at a young age.
“People are different, and you should celebrate that,” she said.
“It’s good to be different, and it’s good that you have friends that are different. It’s good that we are a multicultural society. We need to start celebrating the different people living here. “
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