Cops boost hate patrol
Street & transit redeploy
Undercover NYPD cops will be redeployed to help handle the recent surge of anti-Asian hate crimes across the city, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Tuesday.
The top cop acknowledged during an NY1 appearance that anti-Asian attacks have “certainly ratcheted up since last year.” He said the department is working to step up patrols.
“When you look at different sections of New York City, whether it’s in Chinatown, whether it’s here in lower Manhattan, whether it’s in Flushing or parts of Brooklyn, you’re going to see uniformed as well as some people that may surprise you,” Shea said.
“And we’ll have more to say on that when we redeploy some of our undercover officers, if you will, to be out there and to make sure that, you know, people aren’t being unfairly targeted, whether in the transit system or above ground.”
He did not provide further details on the redeployment, and the NYPD said it does not “discuss staffing levels for security reasons.”
Recent anti-Asian crimes in the city include an attack on a 37-year-old woman in Noho on Sunday as she headed to a rally decrying the surge in violence.
The suspect, Erick Deoliveira, 27, who was arrested on hate-crime charges Monday, allegedly punched her and stomped on the sign she was carrying to the protest.
And the same day, a pipe-wielding man bashed an Asian woman in the face after yelling about her race on the Lower East Side, police said.
“You know, we started to really see an increase in numbers around the time [of] coronavirus, but it’s also been something that’s been here under the surface,” Shea said. “I made a comment last week that I think the numbers are much higher. And all of a sudden now, you see many people coming out.
“So, is it that more people are coming out? Or is it that these things were always happening and people are starting to maybe feel a little more comfortable in reporting? Maybe it’s in the middle. But it’s important to acknowledge all this, I think, and more importantly, what are we going to do so that no one feels unsafe walking outside?”