THE victims in Tuesday night’s pepper-spraying incident (reported on our website on Wednesday) in Newton were white – the perpetrators were young South Asian men in their late teens and early 20s.

If it had been the other way around, we would be crying ‘racism’!

Well, what about this disgraceful behavior by young South Asian men? How does it help the image of our community?

A Surrey RCMP spokesperson told The VOICE on Wednesday that a father and his young son and the man’s girlfriend were walking down the street around the 7700-block of 125th Street on the way to a park in Newton when a Range Rover drove by very fast. The father yelled at the driver to slow down.

The vehicle stopped and a couple of males got out, exchanged some words with the father and then fled. Some minutes later, the vehicle returned and when the father approached it, he was pepper-sprayed. Some children near him were also affected by the spraying and paramedics were called to treat them at the scene.

Police said they got a partial licence plate number and have some information about the suspects.

They said apparently the vehicle is known to people in the area because it has been causing problems.

Several TV channels on Wednesday carried interviews with the victim’s girlfriend, who was with the kid who also needed treatment. None of them mentioned that the perpetrators were South Asians, however.