A customer demands a refund on goods she bought but no longer wants. The shop owner refuses, offering a credit note instead. The customer grabs other goods, apparently in recompense. The shop owner tries to stop her from leaving the premises. She appears to hit him and he to assault her, putting his hands around her throat in a chokehold. Police arrest the customer, and then later, after a video of the incident goes viral, interview the shop owner, too.
Presented like this, most people would see the incident as an argument that got out of hand and probably regard the shop owner as having used unacceptable force. But when something like this scenario played out in a shop in Peckham, south London, last Monday, perceptions were coloured by an extra ingredient. The shop owner was Asian, the customer black. Suddenly, an out-of-control argument became viewed as racial conflict.
