California gearing up to fight hate crimes as anti-Asian sentiment surges

LOS ANGELES, March 11 (Xinhua) -- A new study, conducted by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism (CSHE) at California State University, San Bernardino, found a nearly 150 percent surge in anti-Asian hate crimes across major cities in the United States in 2020, while overall hate crimes fell by 7 percent.
"Report to the Nation: Anti-Asian Prejudice & Hate Crime," based on police department statistics in 16 cities, will be released later this month, according to the CSHE, which posted fact sheets about the research on the university's official website on Thursday.
New York City saw the highest jump, rising from 3 to 28, Boston and Los Angeles followed, with increases from 6 to 14, and 7 to 15 respectively, the report said, noting that the first spike occurred in last March and April amid a rise in COVID-19 cases and negative stereotyping of Asians relating to the pandemic.
However, local CBS news channel said on Thursday that the report could not show the overall picture of hate acts happening across the country, since the data cited by the research was limited to crimes reported to local police departments.
More racism attacks aiming at Asians were called as "hate incidents," which was defined by the Department of Justice as acts of prejudice that are not crimes. The number of such attacks is also on the rise last year.
More than 2,800 of these hate incidents targeting Asian Americans had been reported in 47 states and the District of Columbia since the beginning of the pandemic, according to the Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit group formed in 2020 in response to increased racially motivated violence against Asian people as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
AAPI refers to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The population of AAPI in the country was estimated at 24.2 million by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2018.
The report issued by the California-based group on Feb. 9 also showed that physical assaults made up 8.7 percent of all the incidents, coughing or spitting 6.4 percent, verbal harassment 70.9 percent, and shunning or avoidance 21.4 percent.
Meanwhile, the report said even though Asian Americans were racially profiled and attacked as a whole, Chinese made up the ethnic group most often targeted, making up 40.7 percent of the incidents. Koreans, Vietnamese, and Filipinos also faced COVID-19 discrimination in high numbers.
"These recent incidents are stark reminders that urgent action must be taken to protect our AAPI community from hate, discrimination and violence." the group noted on its website, which allows its users to report such incidents.
To fight the surge of anti-Asian hate crimes, the California legislature enacted on Feb. 23 the AB 85 law which includes funding of 1.4 million U.S. dollars specifically to support Stop AAPI Hate's website, analysis and research.
"It is up to all of us - businesses, the government, and community partners - to come together and immediately support victims and families affected by these incidents, and work together to create long-lasting solutions that empower our communities with resources, support and education." the group said.
In Los Angeles County, the most populous county of the county, County Board voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve a motion to immediately identify funding to expand the county's anti-hate program, "LA vs. Hate," in an effort to combat hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
The Los Angeles metro area contains one of the densest Asian populations in the United States, with 11.3 percent of the population identifying as Asian, according to the 2010 census.
The program was established in 2019 by a motion of the county's Supervisor Hilda Solis, who represents large portions of the San Gabriel Valley, Chinatown, Little Tokyo, and Historic Filipinotown in Los Angeles.
Hate incidents have particularly targeted seniors, Solis said, with more than 800 attacks ranging from verbal insults to physical violence reported via the county's 211 information line over the last year.
"We know that these numbers are just the tip of the iceberg." Solis said in a statement on Tuesday, "Despite our efforts to combat hate, the situation has gotten worse."
"In my district, a Chinese man was attacked at a bus stop in Rosemead and a temple in Little Tokyo was vandalized in the past several weeks," she said, adding "the vast majority of hate incidents have gone unreported."
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Dodgers, one the most popular professional baseball teams, enjoying large fan support both at home and on the road, also released a statement addressing and condemning increasing violence and hate crimes against Asian Americans in the country.
"The Dodgers organization condemns this widespread xenophobic violence and intolerance. Such bullying is nothing short of cowardice," the champion of the 2020 World Series said.
The Dodgers made this statement after its manager Dave Roberts spoke out on the injustice and hatred toward Asian Americans running rampant across the country. Roberts' mother is from Okinawa, Japan.
In an email to the Dodgers Organization early this week, Roberts said there had been a dramatic increase in the number of hate crimes against Asian Americans and the Pacific Islander community over these years and those attacks n recent months had intensified and had targeted the elderly in California and New York.
"Unfortunately anti-Asian sentiment is a part of American history (see 1880s, 1940s, or the 1980s as examples) and it has resurfaced again during the pandemic as some seem to blame the world's problems on one ethnic group. To blame Asian Americans at all for the global pandemic is just plain wrong," Roberts wrote.
Source: Xinhua