Activists denounce increased violence against Asians in New York

New York, Feb 21 (EFE) .- Activist groups denounced this weekend in several demonstrations in New York a worrying increase in violence motivated by hatred against Asian people in the streets and demanded that local authorities bring order.
This Sunday, community activist Tony Herbert, who heads the Advocates Without Borders organization and was a candidate for ombudsman, led a protest in the Queens district where he recalled that violence is “at maximum levels,” according to the ABC7 channel.
Herbert, along with a group of activists, pointed to an incident this week in which a 52-year-old Asian woman was berated and pushed to the ground by an individual while waiting in front of a bakery, the latest in a series of violent events with tentative racists against this group.
“Violence in New York is at maximum levels and if you are not robbed in the subway, you are robbed while you wait to buy cakes (…). We do not want the police force to be deprived of funds and to be able to remove these individuals from the street, “he said, referring to the local Police Department (NYPD).
The Big Apple has been experiencing a wave of violence for months that experts attribute to the pandemic and the economic crisis, and last year alone the shootings practically doubled, but the police budget was cut by 1 billion dollars after the protests of Black Lives Matter.
“We ask the legislators, the local council, the mayor of New York: do your job and protect New Yorkers so that they can walk safely on the street,” he added, noting that a “change” is needed in the reform of the system of bonds to avoid the recidivism of certain offenders.
The protest came after dozens of people marched yesterday afternoon to downtown Washington Square Park and again at night to the Chinatown neighborhood to show support for the Asian community after the escalation of attacks registered in the last year.
According to NYPD data, the city has gone from registering three attacks against Asian Americans in 2019 to 29 last year, the vast majority motivated by prejudice related to the covid-19 pandemic, to which former President Donald Trump repeatedly referred to. like the “Chinese virus”.
The civil rights NGO National Action Network held a meeting this Saturday in which activist Al Sharpton offered the support of the African-American community to the Asian community and, together with state senator John Liu, attributed the violence to the “hate” rhetoric of Trump, pick up the NY1 channel.
In recent weeks, the news of attacks against Asians in the United States, especially against the elderly, have been increasingly frequent, for which civil organizations and prominent figures such as actresses Olivia Munn or Awkwafina have raised their voices in awareness campaigns.
The organization “Stop Asian American and Pacific Islander Hate”, from the beginning of the pandemic until the end of 2020 registered almost 2,800 complaints of “anti-Asian hatred” throughout the country. , 240 of them including a physical attack.

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