TOA PAYOH CANTRAL DRAMA CAUGHT ON CAMERA
Teen girl accuses Caucasian man of assaultHE HIT & KICKED ME
Incident escalates as upset passers-by jump in to defend teen and friend
By Liew Hanqing
November 18, 2007 Video Link here:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=caucasion+man+hits+girls&search=SearchHE saw the tall Caucasian man hit the two young girls from behind.
The impact was so great that the girls fell to the floor.
The first thing Mr Phua Boon Hiong, who was manning a pushcart selling air fresheners nearby, did was to make sure the attacker didn't get away.
'For a man to hit two young girls is just not right,' he said in Mandarin, in an interview with The New Paper yesterday.
Recalling the incident at Toa Payoh Central on Thursday, Mr Phua, 37, said it started when one of the teenage girls bumped into a woman who was walking past her. This was shortly after 1pm.
UMBRELLA ATTACK
Mr Phua, who was manning his pushcart at the time, said: 'The woman then took out her umbrella and hit the girl from behind.
'I then saw her run into a nearby supermarket.'
What happened a short while later shocked Mr Phua.
He recalled: 'The woman came out of the supermarket with a Caucasian man. The man landed punches on the backs of both girls' heads and upper bodies.'
The girls were hit so hard that both fell to the floor, he said.
Another pushcart vendor, who declined to be named, said she was shocked when the man attacked the girls.
She said: 'I saw him hit the side of one girl's head. He grabbed the other girl's arms and then pushed her to the floor.
'A crowd of 20 to 30 people gathered to watch the commotion.
'Both the teenagers and the couple were very angry - they just kept shouting at each other.'
Mr Phua said that after the man hit the girls, he tried to leave with his female companion.
But Mr Phua refused to let them get away.
Together with three other passers-by, he restrained the man while others blocked the couple.
Another passer-by called the police.
Mr Phua also gave the couple a harsh tongue-lashing.
THIS IS SINGAPORE
He said: 'I told the man that Singapore is not a lawless place.
'He cannot hit somebody in public and expect to get away with it.'
One of the girls, Miss Michelle Quek, 18, recorded two clips of the latter part of the incident and uploaded them on video-sharing site YouTube and The Straits Times Stomp website.
She also recounted the incident on her blog.
She wrote: 'While I was walking, my schoolbag hit a woman accidentally.
'After bumping into her, she started throwing vulgarities at me... she hit my back with her umbrella, but thank God she missed!'
According to Miss Quek's account, the woman's blow landed on her backpack.
But she was adamant about not letting her attacker get away without an explanation.
She claimed she then followed the woman to the supermarket where the woman accused her of being the first to attack.
But a supermarket security guard asked Miss Quek to leave and she walked out.
Outside, she claimed the woman's companion, a tall Caucasian man, attacked her and her friend from behind.
She wrote: 'He grabbed both my friend's arms from the back, then lifted her off the floor and threw her onto the floor.
'Before I could react, I saw his fist flying towards my face.
'I moved back a little, but I still got punched slightly in the nose.'
She claimed the man then kicked her right leg.
The girls shouted for help when the couple tried to leave the scene and passers-by, including Mr Phua, immediately jumped in.
In the video, Mr Phua and another man are seen holding on to the Caucasian man and his female companion.
They appear to put up a half-hearted struggle.
The Caucasian man remains quiet throughout the encounter, only responding to Mr Phua softly at several points.
But the woman engages Mr Phua in a screaming match and, at one point, can be heard chiding her companion to 'shut up'.
Eventually, the couple stay until the police arrive.
A police spokesman said a call was received at 1.15pm on Thursday informing them of a dispute between two pairs of people at Toa Payoh Central.
The police are looking into the matter.
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Videos stir up storm online
THE online videos uploaded by MissQuek have caused a furore among Netizens here.
In the first video, the Caucasian man is seen being restrained by Mr Phua and some passers-by when he tries to walk away with the woman.
He is also seen getting a tongue-lashing from Mr Phua and the other passers-by for hitting the teenagers.
The woman is seen confronting Mr Phua, repeatedly yelling: 'How can she beat me?'
The couple attempt to walk away hurriedly while Mr Phua pursues them.
In the second video, the woman is seen trying to prevent Miss Quek from recording the incident.
Pointing to the camera, she yells: 'She's taking a picture of me. That's not right!'
The woman then tries to approach Miss Quek, who was holding the camera, but is blocked by a passer-by.
Since the videos were uploaded, they have each gathered more than 6,000 views.
Netizens have also flooded the video's comments section with responses to the incident.
Some applauded the passers-by for standing up for the girls.
Wrote viewer datok1: 'I respect the men who stood up for the girls. Under no circumstances should a man hit women, let alone two girls.'
Another viewer, MSLastStraw, wrote: 'Really, this is Singapore, the Caucasian thought he can run away after punching people?'
TOO AGGRESSIVE
Others, however, felt the passers-by were too aggressive in how they handled the incident.
Wrote one user, qussl3: 'In no way am I condoning the fact that the Caucasian man and his partner may have manhandled the poster.
'They may be in the wrong, but since when did we Singaporeans turn into screaming vigilantes?'
Agreeing, another user, FusionTiger, wrote: 'I felt bad seeing that poor Caucasian guy being blasted by the people around him like that.
'He could be wrong, but I think things shouldn't get so heated up.'