Stevens Point police: Man harassed Asian shoppers
Slurs used against those wearing face masks
STEVENS POINT - Police have arrested a 57-year-old man they say hurled racial slurs at grocery shoppers of Asian descent May 12 because they were wearing protective face masks.
The customers said the man called them names and harassed them for wearing masks, said Stevens Point Police Lt. Dana Williams.
“It was an intentional comment made toward Asian victims,” Williams said.
The Police Department said the man is white but didn’t identify the specific ethnicity of the shoppers. However, the department said it has learned members of the Stevens Point Hmong and Asian community have seen an increase in harassment since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our community will not tolerate disparaging behavior and harassment,” the Police Department said in a Facebook post. The department “strongly encourages anyone who may have experienced this type of criminal behavior to contact law enforcement immediately.”
Law enforcement officials in Wisconsin last month noted an uptick of racially motivated incidents related to the coronavirus, noting that harassers had apparently blamed Asian Americans because the pandemic has its origins in China.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison condemned chalk messages on a campus sidewalk blaming the virus on China and held a virtual town hall to warn against any racist or xenophobic acts toward Asian Americans living in Wisconsin.
State Attorney General Josh Kaul has cited a Wisconsin statute that would penalize anyone convicted of a hate crime with a fine up to $10,000 or one year in jail.
Wausau Police Chief Ben Bliven told USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin earlier this spring that there had been one reported incident of what was believed to be a racially motivated incident. Bliven said police did not make an arrest in that instance.
At that same time, Marathon County Sheriff Scott Parks said there were ongoing investigations of people spitting or coughing on others and vandalizing homes and businesses of the county’s Asian population.
“They are being victimized because misguided individuals have decided to attack them due to the COVID-19 pandemic that is impacting this nation,” Parks wrote in a Facebook post.
In the Stevens Point incident, an officer arrested the man on a suspected charge of disorderly conduct as a hate crime, Williams said. As of Tuesday morning, the man had not been officially charged.