The Christmas celebrations were not exempt from violence or acts of discrimination, as experienced by a family that was assaulted with discriminatory insults on a Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) train at Penn Station in Manhattan.
The family of five was returning to their Long Island residence after a Nicks game, but was assaulted on the train by a white couple in an apparent drunken state. The man made discriminatory expressions.
The aggression began when the family was looking for enough seats to be together on the train, then the woman in the couple began to shout and soon her companion joined the aggression about people’s skin tone and accent and the nonsense that they are “foreigners who don’t pay taxes”.
“They are taking over my country”, said the visibly drunk man. He yelled at his interlocutor: “Don’t look at me!”.
The story was told exclusively by NBC News about the residents of Ronkokoma, Long Island.
“No I knew what was going on,” said Elizabeth Edelkind, who has been living in the country for more than 20 years and is married to an American. “They verbally attacked me… calling me rude things… that I was an immigrant, that I don’t pay taxes, that I don’t have rights in this country.”
With Elizabeth, her husband and two other people was her son 10 years last week.
The family sued the couple.