A Korean American father says a white couple harassed him and tried to get authorities involved after he scolded his children.
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Michael Kim was visiting Fire Island with his 9 and 5-year-old sons when he says they started fighting and ran in front of a truck.
“I was completely shaken and yelled at them out of sheer terror,” he told NextShark. “I stopped on the side of the road to scold them for misbehaving in such a dangerous manner.”
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But a bike-riding white couple who saw part of the interaction decided they needed to get involved, and tried to interject themselves into the situation. When Kim wouldn’t indulge them, he says the woman flagged down a vehicle with a ‘Public Safety’ logo on the side and “lied to the officer inside,” telling them Kim was abusing his children.
His older child denied the accusations and “the public safety officer drove away without taking any action — because there was no reason to,” Kim told MEAWW.
Rather than just let things go, the couple stayed behind and allegedly continued harassing Kim and even tried to get other people walking by involved. After Kim says the man told him “This isn’t China” and started acting intimidating, the father finally pulled out his camera and started recording.
Kim says the couple’s demeanor changed at that point, but they still stayed blocking his path. The video, shared to TikTok, shows Kim repeatedly asking them to please leave him alone as his kids stood nearby.
Rather than comply, they interrogated him about his job and where he’s from, though he did not reply.
Finally, after one of the kids started shouting at them to leave, the woman told Kim “please don’t harass your children here — go to another town.”
“I don’t want to see you,” she said.
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The interaction left Kim certain that racism played a factor in the couple’s opinion that he was acting inappropriately with his children and the subsequent refusal to leave his family alone.
“I have zero doubt that had me and my kids looked like them they would have continued on their way without incident,” he told MEAWW.
The ‘Karen,’ allegedly responded to an email from Twitter user Keisha Prince, writing that she intervened when she saw an “out of control parent” raining “verbal and emotional abuse” on his children for half an hour.
Michael Kim, in response, addressed the email in a tweet rebuffing Shanley’s account:
Kim is ultimately the most concerned about how this interaction impacted his children, who he says never should have had to experience something like that at such a young age.
“My kids are traumatized and keep asking me if the police will take me away, and why we don’t belong in that town because of her [racist ranting] telling us to leave,” he told NextShark. “They love Fire Island but now they don’t want to return because they are uncomfortable and scared of what might happen to me [and in turn, them].”
*First Published: August 26, 2021, 6:19 am
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