Screenshot : James Ahn

A female motorist in Fremont, Calif., who launched into a mocking, racist tirade against a Korean-American Air Force veteran won’t be charged in an incident that is being labeled by authorities as “road rage” on the part of both parties.


James Ahn, a Fremont resident who is originally from Seoul, told the Mercury News that his head went blank during the shocking encounter in which the woman called him an “ugly Chinese.”

Ahn posted video of the offensive incident to his Facebook page May 21, detailing, “I was driving in Fremont last week and this lady started the racial harassment while threatening me on the road only because I wasn’t driving fast enough for her.


“As I changed the lane, she kept driving towards my car gesturing to crush me and cutting in front of me to slam on the [brake],” he added.

In the video, the unidentified woman could be heard yelling: “This is not your fucking country. This is my country. This is not a Chinese.”

She then made a racist gesture with her hand and eyes.

“Chinese ugly, ugly Chinese,” she taunted.


Ahn, a naturalized U.S. citizen who joined the military in 2012, told the Mercury News that police said that there was nothing that could be done.

“They said there was nothing they could do about it, so that’s when I decided to post it on my Facebook, hoping it reached people in the Fremont area ... to warn other people,” Ahn said.


However, a local public information officer is telling a different story, saying that apparently, it was Ahn who first initiated the encounter with the woman.

“In summary, what happened was road rage, but not to the extent that we could establish road rage or any other crime,” Public Information Officer Geneva Bosques told the New York Daily News, adding that the department conducted a thorough investigation, interviewing both parties.




Bosques said that what was not shown in the video was that Ahn first provoked the woman by rolling down his window and telling her to go back to her country and that ultimately no one was charged because no threats were made.

“What we have here is hate speech,” Bosques told the New York Post. “And we met with her and she does not deny that she did any of this. But she claims he started it by saying to go back to her country.


“All that we could establish is that this was derogatory remarks between two parties,” she added. “There was no threat and there was no crime committed. We did document everything in a report and we classified it as a disturbance.”