Florida Woman Arrested For Pepper Spraying Asian Women In Village: PD

WEST VILLAGE, NY — A Florida woman was arrested for pepper spraying and spewing racist insults at a group of Asian women in the West Village last weekend, police said.

Madeline Barker, 47, a resident of Merritt Island, Florida, was arrested Friday and charged with assault as a hate crime and harassment as a hate crime, authorities said.

Video taken near 14th Street and Ninth Avenue about 6 p.m. June 11 shows Barker waving pepper spray and demanding women at the other end of a folding table "move," police said.

Barker, clad in pink, also told the Asian women to "go back to where you came from, go back to your country," a police spokesperson told Patch.

Additionally, Barker told an Asian man to "take your 'expletive' back to where you came from," according to police.

And a 13-year-old girl may have been among other people verbally abused by the woman earlier that day, as one of the four women told ABC7.

This arrest comes as New York City faces a staggering increase in hate crimes against the Asian community.

There were 131 hate crimes targeting Asians in New York City in 2021, compared to 28 in 2020 and just one in 2019, according to the NYPD.

Read More: VIDEO: Asian Women Pepper Sprayed In West Vil By Stranger Clad In Pink