Video of San Francisco street assault prompts police probe

SAN FRANCISCO - Police said Monday that they are investigating a video of an elderly man being robbed and assaulted while collecting recyclables on a San Francisco street.

The police department said it was seeking the public's help to identify the victim and witnesses to the racially charged attack.

The video, which was posted on social media, shows a black man hitting an Asian man with a stick as the victim tried to get back a shopping cart presumably loaded with recyclables he had collected.

A person recording the incident taunted the victim by telling him to “go get your cans,” as the man was chased again as he tried to retrieve the shopping cart. At one point, the person said “I hate Asians.”

San Francisco Police Officer Adam Lobsinger, a spokesman for the department, said the video appears to have been taken in the Bayview neighborhood. He said the department learned of the video Monday and it's too early to label the incident as a suspected hate crime.