Man heard using homophobic and racist language on TikTok arrested for hate crime in California

A Colorado man was arrested Monday on a hate crime charge in California after he was heard making homophobic and racist comments towards an Asian man and woman in a viral TikTok video.

San Ramon police have arrested Jordan Douglas Krah, 40, of Denver, on two counts of a hate crime. He is being held at Martinez Detention Center.

The incident happened on Christmas Eve at an In-N-Out Burger in San Ramon where Arine Kim and Elliot Ha were filming for a food review. It was then that police said a “male suspect approached the victims without homophobic and racist provocation, causing the victims to fear for their safety”.

San Ramon Police Chief Denton Carlson saw the video online and began contacting people on social media to identify the suspect and victims, according to to the police. After contacting the victims, an investigation was opened which led to Mr. Krah’s arrest.

In the video, a man can be heard disparagingly referring to Mr. Ha and Ms. Kim as gay. The man, who was only briefly shown on the back camera, then referred to Mr Ha as “Kim Jong-un’s boyfriend”.

Mr. Ha made some comments to the man, who then made racist remarks and said he would spit in Mr. Ha’s face.

The man can be heard calling himself a ‘slave master’ and directing a homophobic slur at Mr Ha and Ms Kim before saying he’ll ‘see you out in a minute’.

Mr. Ha and Ms. Kim said several times in the video that the man was watching them through the restaurant window.

My friend and I were eating at In-N-Out in San Ramon when a man started hurling racial slurs and threatening us. pic.twitter.com/hUoXvsHPN8 a>

— 아린 (@ahreenkim) December 25, 2022

California defines a hate crime as “a criminal act committed, in whole or in part, because of one or more of the following actual or perceived characteristics of the victim: disability, sex, nationality, race or ethnic origin, religion, sexual orientation, association with a person or group exhibiting one or more of these real or perceived characteristics”.

The state prosecuted 285 hate crimes in 2021, according to a California Department of Justice report. Of the 140 cases for which a decision was made available for the report, 46% of the cases resulted in convictions for hate crimes, 31% resulted in other types of convictions and 22% were not convicted.

Those convicted of a hate crime face up to a year in prison and could pay a $5,000 fine.