NEW YORK (NewsNation Now) — The U.S. started a new week with hate crime investigations underway on both coasts, as attacks on Asian-Americans continue to rise.
New York City saw three attacks Sunday, the same day a motorist in Los Angeles unleashed a tirade of anti-Asian slurs after driving his car through pedestrians who had gathered to protest bias crimes.
The Atlanta spa shootings that left six Asian-American women dead shone a spotlight on hate crimes globally, as the latest data revealed a big increase in America in the year of the pandemic.
Nationally, according to the group ‘Stop AAPI Hate,’ a coalition addressing anti-Asian hate, there were nearly 3,800 incidents, with the vast majority, 42%, targeting people of Chinese descent.
As state and local leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area gathered Monday to condemn anti-Asian violence, some argued the Trump administration made the problem mainstream.
“During this pandemic, he scapegoated our community with references that you have heard. He emboldened his supporters, allowing racism to fester,” California state assemblyman David Chiu said during a media briefing.
Hate crime victim Danilo Yuchang victim spoke to NewsNation’s San Francisco affiliate KRON-TV about an unprovoked attack a week ago that left his eyes swollen completely shut.
“He beat me so bad that on the first and second day I couldn’t see anything,” Yuchang told KRON-TV. He was left unconscious, but neither his wallet nor phone were taken.
During a briefing in Seattle, a local school teacher spoke of her own experience of being attacked in the city’s Chinatown district. Noriko Nasu said a man attacked her in February and hit her in the face with what she said looked like a rock in a sock. Local media reports say the man accused of attacking her has been charged with two counts of second degree assault, but not with a hate crime.
In Washington, D.C., a group of Democratic lawmakers is seeking to boost public awareness of the upcoming #STOPASIANHATE virtual action day on March 26th in response to the mass shooting in Atlanta.
In New York, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea told NewsNation affiliate WPIX-TV that police believe many of these crimes are going unreported.
Community activists estimate there have been at least 14 such incidents so far this year. The NYPD says 29 were reported in all of 2020.