Coronavirus racism: San Francisco woman speaks out about violent confrontation, attack while walking her dogs

Monday, April 20, 2020
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Shocking, expletive-laden video taken by a San Francisco woman shows what can happen when civilians try to enforce social distancing and face-covering rules and the situation escalates.

WATCH: ABC7's interactive town hall 'Race and Coronavirus: A Bay Area Conversation'

Amanda Law was walking her two dogs along the Great Highway Sunday morning when she says she was approached by a woman from behind, accusing her of not practicing social distancing.
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Caught off-guard, Amanda, who was wearing a mask at the time, asked the woman to back away for the sake of one of her dogs.

"Why doesn't she go back to where she came from!" cries the woman who is seen inching closer to Amanda. She continues, "This is how stupid these nasty people, they should stay in f**king Asia!"


Quickly about half a dozen bystanders jump in to help.

"Because she was really emotional she spit in my face and I thought oh no!" says Amanda.



The bystanders say they heard the woman accost others along the path earlier who were not wearing masks while running outside. Something not required if social distancing is being practiced. Exactly the behavior San Francisco Mayor London Breed wanted to avoid, as heard in a press briefing on Friday.

"If you're not a police officer, don't act like one. We don't want people to confront one another." said Breed as she explained the guidelines.

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Amanda is clear to point out she's not sharing her story to shame anyone. Rather to help educate in an already challenging time.



"Instead of focusing on, while this is terrible just to be aware of the situation and think about what we can do to avoid the situation from happening again," she said.

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She has this message of thanks for the good Samaritans who broke social distancing rules to step in and help.

"You guys literally saved me. Literally saved me. If anybody sees something like this happening, just step in."

San Francisco police tell ABC7 News that they're getting a lot of calls about enforcement. But right now they're focused on what Amanda is trying to do: educate others on the rules of social distancing and face-covering.
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