A northern California district attorney announced on Monday that a new special response unit had been created in the wake of the recent attacks on Asians, especially the elderly, in Oakland’s Chinatown, as activists argued that other forms of violence in San Francisco and New York shows a pattern of abuse related to the blame placed on the Asian American community for the coronavirus pandemic.
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley announced the start of a special task force, saying at a news conference in Oakland’s Chinatown on Monday that “the rapid increase in criminal acts against members of the Asian community, particularly American Chinese, who live and work in Alameda County, are intolerable. “
CHINATOWN FROM CALIFORNIA ON THE EDGE AFTER ROBBERTOS, ASSAULT IN ELDERLY DURING COVID BLOCK
“It is not unique to Chinatown or the Asian community to see the increase in crime that we have seen across the city and the county, but we have seen in the past few weeks and months a very specific increase in crimes against Asians,” O’Malley said. “Still calling it a ‘Chinese virus’, things like that, that fuels hatred and fuels aggression and that hatred and aggression often result – sometimes they are words – but it is often committing robbery or other types of crimes . “
The Oakland Police Department has relocated resources and is stepping up patrols ahead of the Lunar New Year next Friday.
Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly described the coronavirus or COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus”, a reference to its outbreak in Wuhan, China. Just six days after taking office, President Biden issued a memo condemning “inflammatory and xenophobic rhetoric” that put Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) people, families, communities and companies at risk during the pandemic.
Asked whether Biden saw recent Oakland videos, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a news conference on Monday that she did not know if the president had seen the videos, but “he is concerned about discrimination against actions against the Asian-American community, which is why he signed the executive order and why he has been outspoken in making it clear that attacks, verbal attacks, any attacks in any way, are unacceptable and we need to work together to resolve them. “
John C. Yang, president and chief executive officer of the civil rights organization Asian Americans Advancing Justice, said at the press conference in Oakland on Monday that there was an increase in anti-Asian attacks last year, but there is limited crime data showing the trend because people are afraid to report crimes.
“It is absolutely tragic and, unfortunately, this has been a trend that we saw last year with regard to anti-Asian violence, and much of it stemming from the rhetoric we saw related to the coronavirus,” said Yang.
O’Malley’s office accused Yahya Muslim of 28 years of assault and serious bodily injury for pushing a 91-year-old man to the floor on 8th Street and Harrison on January 31. Muslim had two previous convictions for assault, prosecutors said.
ROBBERY ‘SMASH AND GRAB’ FROM SAN FRANCISCO TAKEN THE DRIVER’S TESLA CAM
Video released by the police also showed that he later approached a 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman on the same street and pushed them from behind as they walked. All three victims received medical attention at the local hospital for injuries.
Another surveillance video inside a convenience store showed a suspect identified by the police as Deveion Lamont Byrd, 22, walking behind an 80-year-old woman before taking two $ 100 bills from her hands while she went to pay at the checkout counter. and run out.
Several blatant attacks captured by the cameras went viral on social media, and actors Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu were offering a $ 25,000 reward for information leading to arrest and sentencing.
“My dad is 91,” said Wu, who grew up in Orinda, at a news conference in Oakland. “Having to think that something like this is happening to my father is just unimaginable.”
“The racist rhetoric of the pandemic targeted us for being the reason for the coronavirus,” he continued. “Asians across the board have been the target of racial slurs, being attacked, pushed, spat on. Outside of San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, these incidents are happening across the country.”
An elderly man from Thailand was the target of another surprising attack that went viral on social media after it happened in broad daylight in the Anza Vista neighborhood in San Francisco on January 28. A neighbor’s surveillance camera captured the moments when a man abruptly ran towards an 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee standing outside his garage, knocking him violently to the floor before walking away.
Ratanapakdee died in the hospital two days later. His family members told KTVU Fox 2 that they believe the attack was racially motivated and related to the guilt placed on Asians for the pandemic.
On February 1, San Francisco district attorney Chesa Boudin announced that 19-year-old Antoine Watson would be charged with murder and abuse of the elderly, causing death in connection with Ratanapakdee’s death.
The assassination of Ratanapakdee “was especially painful for the Asian American community in the Pacific Islands (AAPI), which has been victimized by many incidents of violence, hatred and racism since the beginning of the pandemic,” the prosecutor said.
“This was a horrible and meaningless attack, and I send my deepest condolences to the Ratanapakdee family for this unthinkable pain,” added Boudin in a statement. “My heart goes out to the whole AAPI community for the evil and fear that this tragedy has inflicted.”
The attacks were first reported on social media by activist Amanda Nguyen. She also highlighted an attack on Noel Quintana, a 61-year-old Filipino who was hit in the face during a clash on the New York subway on February 3.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION
New York police are still looking for the attacker, but authorities have so far not mentioned race as a factor in the attack. Mayor Bill de Blasio has refused to acknowledge a crime problem, and police commissioner Dermot Shea said traffic crime has declined, the WABC reported.