Chinatown on edge after rash of attacks, robberies
Merchants hire armed guards, community police officer returns, volunteer escorts are on hand
OAKLAND >> The videos are jarring.
In one, a frail 91-year-old man is suddenly shoved to the ground while walking along Harrison Street in Oakland’s Chinatown.
Around the same time that disturbing image went viral, footage appeared of a young man running toward an elderly person in San Francisco and slamming him to the driveway. The 84-year-old victim later died.
Those assaults, along with a rash of robberies in Chinatown, have revived the fear that anti-Asian sentiment — stoked early in the pandemic when former President Donald Trump referred to the novel coronavirus as “the China virus” — still festers in the Bay Area, as well as across the nation.
The videos, shown repeatedly on television news, spurred social media messages and public pleas by Chinatown and city officials urging residents to decry anti-Asian violence. Actors Daniel Wu and Daniel Dae Kim even got involved, announcing a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspect in the Oakland assault.
Amid a backdrop of hate incidents against Asian Americans — researchers at Stop AAPI Hate documented more than 2,808 nationwide last year since the pandemic began — Chinatown residents are taking action regardless of whether the local crimes sprung from hatred or just opportunity.
Merchants who had been reporting a number of attacks and robberies leading up to the Lunar New Year have taken the desperate but controversial move of hiring armed guards. Volunteer “ambassadors” have stepped up to escort residents and visitors — mostly the elderly — around the neighborhood. Rallies calling for unity have been held.
The city meanwhile has brought back a community police officer it had removed from Chinatown’s streets just weeks earlier in a budget-cutting move.
But despite the rallies, stepped-up security and ambassador escorts, people in Chinatown remain on edge. Last Monday, a man fired a gun at suspects who police said tried to rob a young woman of her camera. The man who tried to stop the robbery was arrested.
At a press conference held earlier this month by community leaders to address the violence, Iona Chang recounted what happened to her when she was walking down the street one recent afternoon and three youths attacked her.
“They dragged me to the ground. They punched me. I fought back with them but they managed to take my wallet, my phone, and my keys out of my pockets,” she said.
“I’m here to tell you what happened to me was awful,” Chang said. “I do not want this to happen to other Asian American women, or
anyone else.”
Oakland Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas, whose district includes Chinatown, said “year after year, more crimes happen around (Lunar) New Year.” At that time, people tend to carry cash to shop or to bring as new year’s gifts to young relatives.
Carl Chan of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce said he’s glad the community officer is back. “We appreciate the creation of this dedicated resource for Chinatown and our Chinese-speaking residents, particularly our seniors,” he said.
But some merchants don’t believe that goes far enough. The GoFundMe page they set up to pay for private security guards — more than $80,000 has been collected so far — bluntly states: “The local city officials have failed to protect members of our community and it’s time we take matters into our own hands.”
“We understand that this may not be the answer to the problems we are facing, but we pray that it will help to intimidate and defer the attackers that are targeting the vulnerability of those who reside or work in
Chinatown.”
While the increased security presence has assured some, others have called for non-police safety solutions.
Alvina Wong, campaign and organizing director for the Oakland-based Asian Pacific Environmental Network, pointed out that having officers around has not always stopped crimes against Chinatown residents or visitors.
“Everyone wants safety, and everyone’s version of safety looks and feels different,” Wong said. “It has to be accountable to us, and it has to be effective.”
Oakland-based Asian
Health Services has set up fundraising for a victims fund and to expand the Chinatown Ambassador Program. Others within the Oakland Chinatown Coalition, as well as newer groups like Compassion For Oakland, have joined the effort to connect volunteers with pedestrians.
“Our experiences with violence is not only what you have seen on TV,” Connie Wun, director of transformative research at AAPI Women Lead, told a crowd at a recent vigil and rally in Oakland’s Madison Park. “Our communities have suffered poverty — up to 40% of our people are in poverty. The Chinese elders on the street that you see are sometimes selling vegetables they grow in their gardens.
“Media is not covering that. They don’t see us out here selling two cans for a dollar,” she continued, noting that poverty, immigrant deportation and gender violence are what’s hurting the community.
Instead, she said, the narrative has been about “Black on Asian violence.” In the two videos showing elderly men being pushed to the ground, the attackers were Black. The man arrested on suspicion of shoving the 91-year-old in Chinatown has been charged with felony assaults and elder abuse but not with a hate crime; charging documents show he had a history of mental illness and had assaulted other victims in downtown Oakland before then.
Several other community leaders at the same rally called for solidarity among Oakland communities, particularly between Black and Asian residents.
While it’s been a period of grief and fear, Wong said she hopes the community will figure out how to work together, not just in Chinatown but in other neighborhoods that are hurting from violence.
“This is a moment that is calling for extreme creativity and innovation,” Wong said. “We have it — we have it in this community. There is so much love and commitment to making our communities better.”