ATLANTA — A man pleaded guilty last week to verbally and physically assaulting a Muslim Uber driver outside a Braves game earlier this year, in a profanity-laced tirade that included insults targeted at the driver's religion.
The man will do 50 hours of community service and go without alcohol or drugs as part of a yearlong probation, according to the Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The group provided video of the April encounter, which appears to have been recorded by the driver. The unidentified man can be heard threatening to "f****** destroy your a**" and, later, using the Islamophobic trope "how many virgins are you going to get" for performing a sex act.
As part of the plea deal, the man also underwent religious sensitivity training "on Islamophobia and other forms of bigotry" at the courthouse the same day of his hearing.
According to CAIR, he apologized to the driver in court "in a lengthy statement, at which point the two men shook hands."
The group said the April incident outside SunTrust Park began with the man's friend getting into the Uber and being refused service because he smelled of alcohol.
In the video, the driver can be heard telling the man "your friend cussed me out and I didn't take him."
"You know what, I will f****** destroy your a**" the man says at that point.
Additional threats and profane insults follow. According to CAIR, the man eventually opened the driver's door, spit on him and punched him.
The man pleaded guilty to charges of simple battery and public drunkenness.
"This crime serves as another reminder of why Georgia should recognize, document and penalize hate crimes. Without a hate crimes law, officers and prosecutors cannot officially document or appropriately punish these incidents for what they are: crimes of hate," CAIR-Georgia staff attorney Murtaza Khwaja said in a release.
The statement also commended the man on his guilty plea, saying, "Many people wrong others because of ignorance and bigotry, but few people then admit their mistakes, seek forgiveness and make amends, which this defendant did."
MORE HEADLINES
