One morning in November 2023, when Ashish Prashar and his toddler son were at a playground in Brooklyn, they were attacked by a woman who threw her phone and coffee cup at them and repeatedly shouted at Prashar to “go away.” At the time, Prashar—who is Punjabi—wore a kaffiyeh around his neck. His 47-second video of their encounter went viral on the internet, sparking a chain of events: an online mob searching for the woman in the video, the doxxing of a wrongly identified person, and the real assailant eventually charged with hate crime charges. In this story for The Washington Post, Ruby Cramer spends time with Prashar and his wife after the incident, as they deeply consider questions about justice and mercy, as well as compassion. (Note: Story is for Washington Post subscribers.)
Someone had seen the woman at a grocery store in Brooklyn.
The person had taken photos. They’d called the precinct and waited at the store for the police. No police came. No arrest was made. Ash was also feeling impatient. He decided to post the photos to his Instagram. “It is disheartening to let you know that the NYPD didn’t send an officer to the scene to apprehend her,” he wrote, and more comments came streaming in.
But a few days later, he saw something that alarmed him. It was a new video about the case, from another stranger. This one named the woman and listed her home address.
“This is not what I wanted,” Ash said.
He called the detective. “Someone posted her address and her name online,” he said, speaking quickly. “I don’t know who this person is, but I wanted to call you to tell you straight away —”
The detective stopped him. “Okay, so, Ash,” he said, “I have her under arrest.”
“You have her under arrest?”
“I have her under arrest.”
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