Rising attacks on elderly Asian Americans in San Francisco Bay area prompt new special response unit

“It was a horrible and senseless attack, and I extend my deepest condolences to the Ratanapakdee family for this unthinkable pain,” Boudin said in a statement. “My heart goes out to the entire community (of the Asian-American Pacific Islands) for the hurt and fear this tragedy has inflicted.”

“It’s not unique to Chinatown or the Asian community that the increase in crime we’ve seen across town and across the county, but we’ve seen over the last few weeks and months a very specific increase. of crimes against Asians, “O Malley said.

A 28-year-old man has been charged with three counts of criminal assault for the attacks, prosecution documents show. The man was taken into psychiatric detention on February 1 for another incident in which he again assaulted people, the documents show.

How pandemic rhetoric sparked anti-Asian bias

The two incidents do not appear to be directly related and there is no evidence as to their motivations.

Still, they have heightened existing concerns about the rise of anti-Asian bigotry, which has become more prominent since the world first learned of a new disease in Wuhan, China.

“It’s absolutely tragic, and sadly it’s a trend we’ve seen over the last year with regard to anti-Asian violence, and a lot of it stems from the rhetoric we have. coronavirus-related view, ”said John C. Yang, president and executive director of the civil rights organization Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

Indeed, a significant number of Asian Americans have said they have been victims of racism and xenophobia linked to the pandemic.

Actors team up to fight prejudice

Attacks on older Asian Americans in the Bay Area have brought these long-standing problems to the surface.

Wu, who grew up in the Bay Area, said on Monday in Oakland’s Chinatown that he offered the award to bring national attention to the plight of Asian Americans.

“We are crushed like a punch. There is low level petty crime happening to our community. We are being targeted as easy targets,” he said. “But on a larger scale, the racist rhetoric of the pandemic has targeted us as being ‘the reason for the coronavirus’, and so Asians on all sides have been targeted with racial slurs, being attacked, shoved, spat.”

O’Malley, the district attorney, acknowledged the special impact of this anti-Asian rhetoric.

“To continue to call it ‘Chinese virus’ things like that, that fuel hatred and fuel aggression and that hatred and aggression translate over and over again – sometimes they are words – but often times it is ‘is by assault or other crimes, ”she added.

Des To, owner of Alice Street Bakery in Oakland’s Chinatown, said recent attacks in her neighborhood could also be linked to the Chinese New Year celebration on Friday.

“They know it’s close to Chinese New Year and people are going to buy stuff and can have more money on hand, so I believe every year there are more flights or something like that,” she told CNN. “But this year, in fact, they’ve been worse.”

Biden signs decree on anti-Asian prejudice

Joe Biden’s administration has taken a very different approach to trying to resolve these issues.

The memo called on the Department of Health and Human Services to consider issuing guidelines on Covid-19 to advance language access and the sensitivity of the AAPI community.

CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Monday whether the Biden administration would take any further steps to resolve the issue and whether the president had seen the videos.

“I don’t know he saw the videos, but he is concerned about the discrimination against, the actions against the Asian-American community, which is why he signed the decree and why he was outspoken in making it clear that attacks, verbal attacks, any attack of any form is unacceptable and we have to work together to deal with it, ”she said.

“But obviously the Executive Order is something he did very early in his administration … because he felt it was so important to put a marker on.”