WAPO: California Woman Charged With Spitting on Asian American Man in Racist Attack

An Asian American man was sitting outside a restaurant in downtown Mountain View, Calif., last month when a White woman suddenly approached and spat on him, police said. Then she allegedly told him to go back “where you came from” and called him a racist slur.

On Monday, the woman, identified by police as Karen Marie Inman, 39, was charged with a hate crime and battery for allegedly attacking the stranger, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced in a statement.

“Our community stands together against any hatred and racism against the Asian Pacific Islander community,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in the statement. “It is ignorant. It is wrong. And when it is criminal — those who are charged will face the full power of my Office to hold them accountable.”