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A Colorado man has been arrested Monday after allegedly going on a racist and homophobic rant at an In-N-Out in the Bay Area on Christmas Eve. Two college students filmed a now-viral TikTok. The students, Arine Kim and Elliot Ha, laughed nervously as the suspect claims to be “a slavemaster” before using a homophobic slur and threatening them.
Jordan Douglas Krah, 40, has been charged with two counts of committing a hate crime, according to a statement from the San Ramon Police Department.
@arinekim My friend and i were filming his reaction to my in-n-out order when this happened… #arinekim
“You’re filming yourself eating? You’re weird homosexuals,” says Krah. The diners look stunned, and the suspect then asks if they are Japanese or Korean. When one of them answers ‘Korean’, the suspect then says “that’s what I thought. You’re Kim Jong Un’s boyfriend huh.”
After Ha briefly exchanges with Krah, the suspect threatens to spit on both victims before Krah says, “See you outside.”
“Elliot and I were shaking and stuttering towards the end of it,” Kim told CBS Bay Area, who said that after the pair exited the restaurant, Krah continued to stare at them for “ten to fifteen minutes.”
“We made sure to ask the workers, could you guys walk us to our cars, we need to make sure that he’s not still around. And the workers were just super helpful,” Ha told CBS Bay Area.
According to the San Ramon Police Department, it was the viral nature of the video that helped police identify both the victims and the suspect.
interviewed and a press release will be distributed later with additional arrest charges (if determined they are necessary).
Krah will be booked at the County Jail in Martinez. (2/2)
— Chief Denton Carlson (@DentonLCarlson) December 26, 2022
TikTok helps police locate suspect
After seeing the TikTok, which had nearly ten million views as of Monday night, police reached out to Kim and Ha via social media and began a criminal investigation.
“Through the help of social media, we were contacted by one of the individuals in this video,” wrote San Ramon Police Chief Denton Carlson on Twitter.
Largely stoked by the former 45th U.S. President, Anti-Asian sentiments have been on the rise since the 2020 global pandemic. To counter the attacks on Asian Americans, last year, Biden announced he would offer protection against the type of hate experienced far too regularly from provocateurs online and in-person.
Hate has no place in America – and I look forward to making that clear this afternoon by signing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 20, 2021
The most recent report from Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition that tracks hate incidents and hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S., shows that from March 2020 to December 2021, almost 11,000 hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were self-reported to the organization. Nearly 62 percent of those incidents were reported by women.
AAPI Data’s most recent 2022 American Experiences with Discrimination Survey in partnership with Momentive conducted in March showed 1 in 6 Asian American adults had experienced a hate crime or hate incident in 2020 and the first three months of 2021. In the first three months of 2022 the figure was at 1 in 12, or 8 percent.
Asian Americans were not alone in experiencing hate incidents. PBS reports from January 2021 through early March 2022, the latest survey showed, 19 percent of multiracial adults, 17 percent of Black adults, 16 percent of Asian American adults, 15 percent of Native American adults, 14 percent of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander adults, and 13 percent of Latino American adults experienced hate incidents or hate crimes.
CBS News reports Krah has been booked at the County Jail in Martinez, California, where he remained in custody as of 4 p.m. local time Monday.