Gothamist
On Wednesday, a man violently shoved a 52-year-old Chinese woman on a sidewalk in Flushing, Queens. The victim required at least five stitches after knocking her head on the concrete floor.
A
video of the incident, which took place in daylight outside a bakery
and showed the attacker throwing an object at the woman before pushing
her, was shared online
and quickly went viral, the latest in a string of violent incidents
that have troubled Asian American communities and prominent public
officials.
What made the Flushing attack especially alarming to
some Asian Americans is that it took place in a neighborhood that is
overwhelmingly Asian.
“I think Asians are easy targets,” said Chris Kwok, a board
member of the Asian American Federation, an advocacy group for Asian
communities. “I think people feel like they won’t fight back. People
feel ‘Oh, the police won’t report. And maybe Asians won’t report.’”
Kwok co-authored a report
for the Asian American Bar Association of New York, "A Rising Tide of
Hate and Violence Against Asian Americans in New York During COVID-19:
Impact, Causes, Solutions, finding 2,500 Asians to be the target of a
hate attack related to COVID-19 between March and September 2020
nationwide.
“And this number understates the actual number of
anti-Asian hate incidents because most incidents are not reported,” the
report reads.
Deputy Inspector Stewart Loo, who heads the NYPD’s Asian Hate Crime Task Force, which formed last August after a spike in hate crimes against Asians, corroborated Kwok’s “soft target” theory.
“One
hundred percent that is part of the problem,” said Loo in an interview
with Gothamist/WNYC on Friday. “I spoke to people who rob Asian
Americans and they'll tell you why they target Asian Americans. It's not
because they're Asian. They perceive them to be soft targets. They
carry cash. They won't report it. It's less likely that they'll identify
them, and they put up the least amount of resistance.”
The NYPD
arrested Patrick Mateo, 47, for the Flushing attack, and he was charged
with assault and harassment. The incident took place a day after two
other Asian American women were attacked in separate subway encounters.
Earlier this month, a 61-year-old Filipino man was slashed across the
face while riding the L train.
Across the country, Asian American
organizations have documented thousands of bias incidents since the
beginning of the pandemic last year and are urging law enforcement
agencies and government officials to take the problem seriously. In San
Francisco, an 84-year-old Thai man died after being knocked to the
ground; a 91-year-old Asian American was pushed to the ground in Oakland’s Chinatown, and a Vietnamese grandmother was robbed in San Jose ahead of the Lunar New Year
The
NYPD has not yet established a racial motive for the Flushing attack
but in a Facebook post the victim’s daughter categorized it as a hate
crime.
"This douchebag was yelling out racial slurs, walks into my
mom and shoved my mother on Main street and Roosevelt Avenue in
Flushing, Queens today,” wrote Maggie Kayla Cheng on Wednesday. “He
shoved her with such force that she hit her head on the concrete and
passed out on the floor. She received 5-10 stitches on her forehead,
spending 4-5 hours in the hospital. Hate crime has no place in our
community. How you go up against a 5'3”, 110-115lbs lady?"
This psycho xenophobe probably would have got away with it if his victim's daughter wasn't a friend of a stunning actress who's also a CEO of a dog walking app
