An Indian immigrant has complained about being victimised after being publicly shamed for illegally dumping rubbish on the side of a road near Auckland.
The man told an Indian media outlet that he has received abusive messages over the viral video, filmed by local man Hugo Maclean, where he is told to put the rubbish back into his car, and has complained to police and online safety regulator Netsafe.
He said he has also apologised to police and Mr Maclean, but also attempted to justify his actions in an interview with The Indian Weekender, which anonymised him as “Mr A”. The Indian immigrant community-focused publication has received at least $705,000 in taxpayer funds in recent years.
Mr A claimed he and a friend were driving around looking for recycling facilities where they could dispose of sofa-sized pieces of cardboard, but centres were closed due to the Easter public holiday and they thought the rubbish was okay to dump because it would decompose over time.
“Within 15 seconds, a car stopped in front of ours and a man got out with a phone camera, started recording and abusing,” he claimed.
“Netsafe told me that they will not be able to remove all the videos since the video is not against community standards. The video is viral in India as well, Netsafe has only been able to remove a few videos.
“I want to let the people know if you do something wrong, accept and apologise immediately.”
Maclean’s clip shows “Mr A” and another man hurriedly putting large cardboard boxes back into their black Toyota Prius as Mr Maclean approached the spot where they were parked on Brookby Road, Clevedon.
“You fucking arseholes,” Mr Maclean says as he walks around the back of the car.
“We are taking it, sorry for that,” Mr A replies.
“Don’t be sorry, don’t fucking come to our country and litter, you motherfuckers,” Mr Maclean responds.
As they are speaking the other man can be seen picking up pieces of cardboard and putting them back into the car.
Mr Maclean told Noticer News he made the pair pick all of their rubbish up, and said there were currently at least five piles of illegally dumped rubbish on his road.
The video sparked anger on Facebook, both on Mr Maclean’s post and other that went viral from page called I Love New Zealand and Truenznews, with many commenters praising him for pulling over and calling them men out.
“Thank you for calling this out we need more people like you if we see something call it out good job,” one person said.
“Well done mate, more people need to stand up for our country like this. How dare they immigrate here and treat our country that gives them everything they never got from wherever they come from. Send them back there, they don’t belong here,” wrote another.
“That’s how they live in their own country. They have no intention of doing anything different just because they’ve come to NZ. It has become worse as more of them are arriving. One bloke found a group and dumped it all back on their yard!” said another Kiwi.
Header image: Left, right, the men caught illegally dumping rubbish (Hugo Maclean).
