Attacks on Asian Americans in New York stoke anger, fear
As crimes rise, Asian Americans say their complaints are not taken seriously by US police
Maggie Cheng could stand to watch the video only once. “I’ve never cried like that before,” Cheng said, describing her reaction to security footage that showed her mother being shoved to the ground last week on a crowded street in Flushing, Queens. “To see my mother get thrown like that, she looks like a feather. She looks like a rag doll.”
The attack on Cheng’s mother, which was highlighted by celebrities and gained widespread attention on social media, was one of four against Asian American women in New York City that day. Taken together, they stoked fears that the wave of racism and violence that has targeted Asian Americans during the pandemic was surging again in New York. Those concerns intensified after a man of Asian descent was stabbed on Thursday night near Chinatown.
The number of hate crimes with Asian American victims reported to the New York City Police Department jumped to 28 in 2020, from just three the previous year, though activists and police officials say many additional incidents were not classified as hate crimes or went unreported. Asian Americans are grappling with the anxiety, fear and anger brought on by the attacks, which activists and elected officials say were fuelled early in the pandemic by former President Donald Trump, who frequently used racist language to refer to the coronavirus.
Random attacks
In New York City, where Asian Americans make up an estimated 16 per cent of the population, the violence has terrified many.
“The attacks are random, and they are fast and furious,” said Jo-Ann Yoo, executive director of the Asian American Federation, a non-profit network of community groups. “It has stoked a lot of fear and paranoia. People are not leaving their homes.”
So far this year, three attacks on people of Asian descent have led to hate crime charges in New York. The most recent came on Thursday, when a 36-year-old man was stabbed near the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan and taken to the hospital in critical condition, police said. A suspect was arrested that evening and later charged with second-degree attempted murder as a hate crime, as well as assault, forgery and criminal possession of a weapon.
Motives unclear
A Police Department spokesman said the motives in last week’s attacks, including the one on Cheng’s mother, were unclear and that they were not currently being investigated as hate crimes. Leaders who have pressed elected officials and police to confront the issue say the response so far has felt sluggish.
“I’m really angry,” Yoo said. “I’ve been asking for something, some kind of a proactive response from City Hall.”
Special task force
Mayor Bill de Blasio said this week that the city was working to increase communication with community leaders, creating a website to help people report and respond to attacks. He also pointed to the Asian Hate Crime Task Force the department formed late last year. “If you dare to raise your hand against a member of our Asian communities, you will suffer the consequences,” de Blasio said at a news conference.
Deputy Inspector Stewart Loo oversees the task force, which is composed of 25 volunteer detectives who speak 10 languages. He said it was designed to encourage Asian Americans who are reluctant
to cooperate with police. “The sentiment within the Asian American community is that the police either don’t care or are not doing enough,” he said.
Pending cases
The NYPD said it made arrests in 18 hate crimes involving Asian American victims last year and the cases are still pending. But many Asian Americans feel that their complaints are not being taken seriously by police and prosecutors, said Chris Kwok, a board member
for the Asian American Bar Association of New York.
“The political and social invisibility of Asian Americans have real-life consequences,” Kwok said. “The invisibility comes from Asian Americans being seen as permanent foreigners — they can’t cross that invisible line into becoming real Americans.”
Several highly publicised incidents early in the pandemic were not handled as hate crimes, Kwok said. If they had been, it “would have sent a signal that
this was unacceptable and that if you were going to target Asian Americans, there would be consequences,” he said.
Covid-fuelled racism
Several Asian Americans who were victims of attacks in New York last year and reported them to the police said the scars were lasting.
Crisanna Tang was riding the subway to work one July morning when a maskless man spat on her and yelled that Chinese people had caused the virus.
None of the other passengers intervened, Tang said. “I was like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe this is actually happening to me,” said Tang, 31, a pathologists’ assistant at Jacobi Medical Centre.
The Asian American Bar Association of New York recently issued recommendations for ways to address the attacks, including clearer reporting mechanisms for victims and formalising the Asian Hate Crime Task Force as a funded unit.