A district attorney in Northern California announced Monday that a new special response unit has been created following recent attacks on Asians, especially elderly Asians, in Chinatown, Oakland, as activists allege other violence in San Francisco and New York. shows a pattern of abuse. related to the blame the Asian American community has placed on the coronavirus pandemic.
Alameda District Attorney Nancy O’Malley announced the creation of a special task force and told a news conference in Chinatown, Oakland, that the “rapid increase in criminal activity is targeting members of the Asian community, especially Chinese. “Americans who live and work in Alameda County are unbearable.”
CALIFORNIA’S CHINATOWN ON RAND TO ROBBERIES, REQUESTS FOR THE ELDERLY DURING LOCKS
“This is not unique to Chinatown or the Asian community, but the increase in crime we have seen in the city and throughout the province, but we have seen a very specific increase in crimes against Asians over the past few weeks and months. . ” Said Malley. ‘To still call it’ Chinese virus’, such things, which incite hatred and incite aggression and that hatred and aggression often result – sometimes it’s words – but many times it’s through assault or other forms of crime commit. “
The Oakland Police Department has renamed resources and is stepping up patrols ahead of the lunar New Year this coming Friday.
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly described the coronavirus or COVID-19 as the ‘Chinese virus’, a reference to its outbreak in Wuhan, China. Just six days after taking office, President Biden issued a memorandum condemning ‘inflammatory and xenophobic rhetoric’ perpetrating individuals, families, communities and businesses of the Asian Americans and Pacific Islands (AAPI) during endangered the pandemic.
Asked if Biden had seen recent videos of Oakland, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said during an information session on Monday that she was not aware of whether the president had seen the videos, but ‘he was concerned about the discrimination. against the action against the Asian American community, therefore he signed the executive order and why he clearly said that attacks, verbal attacks, any attacks of any form are unacceptable and that we must work together to address them. ‘
John C. Yang, the president and executive director of the civil rights organization Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said at the press conference in Oakland on Monday that there has been an increase in anti-Asian attacks in recent years, but there is limited crime data that the trend because people are afraid to come forward to report the crimes.
“This is absolutely tragic, and it has unfortunately been a trend we have seen over the past year towards anti-Asian violence, and much of it stems from rhetoric we have seen related to the coronavirus,” Yang said.
O’Malley’s office has charged 28-year-old Yahya Muslim with assault and grievous bodily harm for pushing a 91-year-old man to the ground on January 31 in 8th and Harrison Streets. Muslim had two convictions from the previous assault, prosecutors said.
SAN FRANCISCO’S ‘SMASH AND GRAB’ ROBBERY CAGGHT ON DRIVER’S TESLA CAM
The video released by police also showed him later approaching a 60-year-old man and 55-year-old woman in the same street and pushing them from behind as they were walking. All three victims received medical attention at the local hospital for their injuries.
A further surveillance video in a store shows a suspect identified by police as 22-year-old Deveion Lamont Byrd walking behind an 80-year-old woman before snatching two $ 100 bills from her hands as she approached the register is going to pay and run. off.
Several brutal camera assaults went viral on social media and actors Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu offered a reward of $ 25,000 for information that led to arrest and conviction.
“My dad is 91 years old,” Wu, who grew up in Orinda, told the Oakland Press Conference. “To have to think of something like that with my father is just unthinkable.”
“Racist rhetoric from the pandemic has targeted us that we are the cause of the coronavirus,” he continued. ‘Asians across the board have been targeted by racial upheaval, by being attacked, by being pushed around, by being spat on. Outside San Francisco, in LA, in New York, these incidents are happening across the country. ‘
An elderly man from Thailand has been targeted in another notable attack that went viral on social media after taking place in broad daylight in the Anza Vista neighborhood of San Francisco on January 28th. Vicha Ratanapakdee stood outside his garage and forcibly hit him on the ground before walking away.
Ratanapakdee died in hospital two days later. His family members told KTVU Fox 2 that they believe the attack was racially motivated and that it is related to the blame the Asians placed on the pandemic.
On February 1, San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced that 19-year-old Antoine Watson would be charged with murder and parental abuse that would have resulted in the death of Ratanapakdee.
The murder of Ratanapakdee ‘was particularly painful for the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI), which has been victimized by many incidents of violence, hatred and racism since the start of the pandemic,’ the district attorney’s office said.
“It was a horrific, senseless attack, and I express my sincere condolences to the Ratanapakdee family for this unimaginable pain,” Boudin added in a statement. “My heart goes out to the entire AAPI community for the damage and fear this tragedy has caused.”
The attacks were first highlighted on social media by activist Amanda Nguyen. She also highlights an attack on Noel Quintana, a 61-year-old Filipino man who was cut in the face on February 3 during a confrontation with a subway in New York.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
NYPD continues to search for the attacker, but so far officials have not mentioned race as a factor in the attack. Mayor Bill de Blasio has refused to acknowledge a crime problem, and Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said the transit crime is no more, reports WABC.