San Francisco reviews huge enhance in anti-Asian hate crimes
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The mayor of San Francisco expressed despair at the increase in reported hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders over the past year, up a staggering 567% from the year before, according to preliminary figures released Tuesday by the Police Department have been released.
The Mayor of London Breed vowed to continue to support the community and said she expected the real numbers to be much higher because people were reluctant to report to the police. The first count shows 60 victims in 2021, up from nine in 2020. Half of last year’s victims were allegedly assaulted by a man.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed speaks during a briefing outside City Hall in San Francisco on December 1, 2021. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
It would have broken her heart if the grandmother who raised her had been attacked, “in the way that we see so many of our seniors in the AAPI community being attacked,” Breed said at Tuesday’s news conference. “But it didn’t come to that. Because we protected each other as a community. And we need to do that now more than ever.”
Hateful attacks against the AAPI community — Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders — increased nationwide during the pandemic, fueled in part by then-President Donald Trump calling COVID-19 a derogatory moniker that offended China. San Francisco State University’s Stop AAPI Hate Coalition tracked more than 10,000 incidents of hate from March 2020 to September 2021.
In San Francisco and elsewhere, video clips of Asian Americans being assaulted and robbed on public streets alarmed the community enough to keep terrified seniors at home. Recently, former San Francisco Bay Area resident Michelle Go died in New York City after a mentally ill man pushed her in front of a subway train. Officials there say there is no indication the man was motivated by racial prejudice, but Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders remain unsettled.
San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said at Tuesday’s news conference that they’ve expanded crime tips to include more languages and are sharing safety tips for the Lunar New Year celebrations. However, he also acknowledged that his department is only part of a criminal justice system that includes prosecutors and judges.
Statistics don’t tell the whole picture because not everyone reports incidents. Also, prosecutors are unable to ameliorate hate crimes without the alleged attacker demonstrating a clear bias. This has frustrated some victims and their families, who see the charges as a sign of accountability.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who faces a recall election in June, has come under fire from some Asian-American victims.
On Tuesday, attorneys for Anh Lê filed a federal lawsuit against Boudin, saying his office systematically refused to uphold the rights of Asian Americans who have been victims of racial violence. Lê says the prosecutor’s office only informed him afterwards of a lenient deal with his attackers or the lack of hate crime charges.
Rachel Marshall, a spokeswoman for the DA, said in a statement that Boudin has been a “staunch advocate” for improved services and support for the AAPI community. He has added multilingual attorneys to his office and created an AAPI Elder Abuse Steering Committee, she said.
The mayor declined to comment on the lawsuit at Tuesday’s press conference.
