RACISM, HARASSMENT, CHILD ABUSE

Hi everyone, I would like to seek your advice about an incident which happened on Tuesday, 3rd of May 2011 on a bus going to Sai Kung Beach (KMB 91 bus).


I got on the bus with the rest of my kids and family, since there were seats left at the back, I sat in one vacant one facing a lesbian couple. Since my 3 kids were all cramped in 2 seats, I decided to take my youngest who's 4 yrs old and have her sit on my lap.


Having done that caused the people opposite us annoyed. One of the girls shouted at my daughter whom I was sure did not even got near them. She shouted at my daughter and and said, "Hey, you're dirty!"


I was appalled having to hear this, so I said, what's the matter, she hasn't done anything to you. Instead of taking what I said, the girl swore at me and said, F** off b***, you're just a helper! She heard me speak Filipino which led her to this allegation.


I told her, I am not a helper, in fact, I was born here. And even if I were, they still don't have any right to treat people that way.


Both girls started mocking me and laughing at me in front of the passengers, and sadly, in front of my 4 year old kid. While calling me names like bitch, helper and swearing loudly, one of them was doing the dirty finger at my kid. My kid was shocked with all this commotion.


They even said, oh yeah, so you have a HKID,helper? that means, you make $6000 dollars a month and laughed it off.


Being a teacher by profession, it is my utmost responsibility to protect the welfare of children, most especially my own.


I called the police because they don't stop swearing at me and the police treats this as a petty issue. While being interviewed by the police, the girls were still mocking me, laughing at me and doing the dirty finger.


The police gave me a reference number which they said my lawyer or anyone who can help me get the details of.


After the police interview, the police decided that we should take 2 separate buses. The two girls took the first bus which arrived and left us to wait for the next bus.


They got to the beach first and my family told me that they looked for my family at the beach and pointed fingers at them, particularly my 2 other children who were there and laughed at them in mockery.


I would like to press charges against these 2 girls, I know they won't apologize because they don't obviously see anything bad in treating me like that.


The incident has affected me a lot. I cannot sleep well and would wake up in the middle of the night with the thought of that. I remember seeing them took pictures of me and my daughter, I worry that they would post those pictures somewhere in mockery of us.


I have witnesses, including my 9 year old nephew who was sitting beside me in the bus. I would like to take this further. I am definite that this is how these girls always treated Filipinos, helper or not. I would like them to learn their lesson.


What the two girls did to me was public humiliation and verbal harassment. My child is also affected as she kept asking me about the incident and the 2 girls, whether we'll see them again in the future as she's been scared by them.


Please advice. How can I take this further? I have already email the Equal Opportunities Committee but I would like to take legal actions as soon as possible if I can.


Thanks everyone.

Thanks for your reply p.mason, I called the police station again and told them I really want to press charges, they finally told me to come down and give my statement. The girls aren't really "girls girls" they're around early to mid 20's so, they're actually adults.


I am on my way to the station, will keep you posted how it goes. I also emailed the OEC about the incident enclosing the police reference number of the case.


Thanks again.

Keeping you guys posted, so went to the police station yesterday and they got my statement about the incident.


The senior police officers were all very negative about me pressing charges, they're like, what happened to you and your kid doesn't have anything to do with crime blah blah blah..


Whatever those two girls did like swearing AT my kid in front of me and scaring her by pointing dirty finger at her while making the scariest face possible was totally unacceptable. I was frustrated about the police's say about it. they're like, even cops get sworn at and pointed dirty fingers at... I said, yeah, I could say tons of filthy stuff at you but hey, you're an adult, it's different with a 4 year old's mind!!


I told them, I could press charges like child abuse. Police said, that's a serious crime, I said, well, you can't find anything serious at it, so I found one! said that child abuse should be repetitive actions towards a kid causing physical harm.


I said, nope, child abuse could be of MANY ways aside from physical. It could be a 2 second incident that would get stuck in her little mind long term or even lifetime! Child abuse is when you take deliberately do something to a child to cause harm even not physically but EMOTIONALLY and PSYCHOLOGICALLY.


I'm still awaiting their say about it, if not, I'm definitely gonna go to the media, other organizations, everywhere for everyone to hear me out.


I am not fighting for my own but for my kid's justice. I am not after the pay for damages, I just want those people to be AWARE that what they did was WRONG if they aren't.


Thanks everyone.

It would be interesting to know what nationality/race etc the offenders were? I agree there should be child abuse in what they did, at least a common assault or loitering thereby putting one in fear?? keep pressing behaviour like that is totally unacceptable

The offenders are local h.k. Chinese, sad to say. I have tons of local friends and even them couldn't take what happened to us.



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horrible story and i agree that you should press charges. but i think you have to take this in two ways:

- one way is to have the police go after them (this seems to be what you are trying). in order for the police to proceed, they need a good reason to go after them. the police will find a hundred reasons why not to go after them, so be persistent.

- like p.mason said though, i think you should also press civil charges, ideally in a non-expensive way, i.e. small claims court


given that the police might just drop the ball (never forget that their goal is to reduce their own workload), i strongly think you should go down the second route soon

Hi Jobin,


Your suggestion of getting off the bus crossed my mind to but given the fact that it was a holiday and the bus was full of people going Clearwater bay beach, plus I have my ENTIRE family with me, 6 adults and 6 kids in the bus. That would've been really hard.


Even going to the bus driver to pass him the phone when I dialed 999 so he stops the bus took me awhile due to standing passengers. It was literally crowded in the bus so exiting it wouldn't be easy at all.


I was sitting at the 2nd row to the back, so it's chaotic, plus all the picnic stuff everywhere..

Oh and by the way, I forgot to mention, after the police interviewed both parties, we were told not to take the same bus to go to clearwater bay...


The offenders said, OH, well, we're special so we take the first bus that arrives, so they did. They got to the beach first, the guess what, when I arrived there, my family and my 2 older kids told me that the two offenders deliberately went to their picnic area and laughed and insulted them in front of everyone at the beach.


My mom told me they just ignored the two pretending they don't see or hear anything. of course, the kids can't do the same, they're kids!


The beach was packed, so they actually LOOKED for my family since they got there first.


I am trying to save my energy coz I feel like I have a lot on my plate now, I have emailed all organizations and agencies I think would be of concern.


Thanks for your replies.



cookie09 and p.mason -- I really appreciate your advices, thanks for the support, I am really feeling weary of all this but I hope it's all worth it in the end.


Thanks again!

Try to provoke them into hitting you, you can say whatever (except threats) you want but no charges can be made against anyone if nothing physical happens.


Think of something extremely humiliating to say to them, keep harassing them until they do something physical to you, and then charge them.


I'm sure you can get revenge, it just depends how much time you are willing to dedicate to it.


Another thing you could do is simply tell the police they have made *threats* against you (not just called you names or whatever). This is verbal assault and is a criminal offence.


Anyway, put it in perspective, they are narrow minded unworldly lowlife scum. Obviously they have low self esteem or they would not need to do this, maybe they were beaten or sexually abused by their fathers or something and they are taking it out on you, who knows (maybe you could ask them).


Would you feel bad if some beggar started calling you names or would you just walk away and forget about it? These two will probably end up beggars on the street when mommy and daddy's money runs out. Or maybe sex slaves.... look at it that way - they are nothing and are not worth your time, ignore them.

Hi, sorry to hear abt ur incident but glad to know u did react to u. There is strong hold against racisim in Hong Kong, there is a hotline number. They were racist to you as per the facts you mentioned and trust me , Hong Kong court will take it seriously and this will be a moral for all.


I work in a law firm , semi-lawyer and not local chinese, so yea I feel u and I can understand what you had to go through, so please dont let us down, dont simply press charges for abusing, make it clear that they abuse u because u r not a local as they clearly abused u knowin u r filpina and they were picking on u simply because of that. Thanks