A wave of attacks on older Asians has sparked fears in some metropolitan areas of Chinatowns, prompting authorities to appoint additional officers on Friday before the lunar new year and take other measures to address a problem that has worsened since the beginning of the year it, to combat.
San Francisco is allocating more police to its Chinatown this week, after older Asians were targeted in a spate of robberies, burglaries and assaults. Area officials advised residents to be vigilant after three violent attacks on January 31 alone. One incident caused nationwide uproar when security cameras captured a 91-year-old man who was pressed to the ground without bias.
No one is being investigated as a hate crime, authorities said.
“These attacks were captured on video, and I know not only these elderly people but also their family members live in fear when their grandparents or parents go to their groceries during the new year,” said London Mayor London Breed.
London Breed, Mayor of San Francisco, visited the city of Chinatown to address residents’ growing concerns about safety and condemn the violence.
“These attacks were captured on video, and I know not only the elderly but also their family members live in fear when their grandparents or parents go to their groceries during the new year,” she said. “We do not tolerate it. … We need to look at every older person in this city as if they were our own parents, our own grandparents. ‘
Carl Chan, a resident of Oakland’s Chinatown and president of the city’s Chamber of Commerce, said he had never seen so much violence in his neighborhood.
“I have been around for so many years and thought I saw the worst,” he said. “But we actually see worse than that.”
Caution increases during lunar New Year events
On the day his gift shop was robbed, Kenneth Lam asked for more police presence in the area along with many other members of the community with the same plea. In a busy shopping season like the new lunar year, Chan said the violence hurt businesses because older residents told him they were actually scared to get out, walk their own streets. ‘
“Because of the increasing number of crimes, he said,” many of our customers decided to turn away to Chinatown and go shopping elsewhere. ‘
Another January 31 attack captured on surveillance video turned deadly after 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee was pushed to the ground by a 19-year-old attacker. Ratanapakdee, a Thai-American, was on foot when the attacker ran from behind, pushed him to the ground and walked away. Ratanapakdee died of his injuries a few days later.
In a show of solidarity and to condemn the violence, many Asian Americans turned their profile photo into a 24-hour illustration of Ratanapakdee on social media.
Although none of these incidents or the attacks on Oakland have been investigated as hate crimes, Ratanapakdee’s son-in-law and daughter-in-law spoke to KPIX, a CBS News store, saying they think racism is definitely a factor. His daughter, Monthanus Ratanapakdee, said she was targeted for her race during the pandemic.
‘When people [see] “Because I’m Asian, they blame me for bringing the Covid to this country,” she said.
Chan also said that since the beginning of the pandemic, he has seen people blaming Chinatown residents for Covid-19. He also thinks that Asians are often targeted because of the stereotype that they have a lot of cash on hand in their homes and businesses.
Last week, major cities saw more violence against Asians, with a 64-year-old woman being attacked and robbed in San Jose, California; a 70-year-old woman pushed and robbed in Oakland; and a 61-year-old man cut across the face after a dispute over a subway in New York.
Last week, actors Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu announced that they were offering a $ 25,000 reward for information that led to an arrest in the Oakland attacks, but shortly thereafter, police announced that a person of interest already in custody on unrelated charges.
Some believe that calls for more policing may not be the answer
John C. Yang, president and CEO of Asian Americans who promote justice, says he thinks this violence is a clear manifestation of the anti-Asian rhetoric and hatred that has persisted since the beginning of the pandemic. Yang said AAJC data shows that Asian Americans reported more than 3,000 hate incidents last year.
“And these are just self-deprecating,” he said. He blames the Trump administration for using hateful and misleading rhetoric to sin Chinese people when he talks about Covid-19. He said anxiety is growing in Asian communities where this violence is taking place.
“There is no doubt that there is fear,” he said. “They themselves are already dealing with the pandemic, but then they have the second virus they are dealing with, the virus of racism.”
But while some community leaders in Oakland’s Chinatown are calling for more police on the streets, Yang says the community can appeal to too many police officers as well.
“An increased police presence is not necessarily going to solve the problem,” he said. ‘We are concerned about the transgression of communities. … We can develop community-based solutions – help for the victims, help for businesses that are damaged. ‘