During a conference held on Tuesday, March 30, Mayor Bill de Blasio described the video as “absolutely disgusting and scandalous” and urged New Yorkers to play a more active role in the fight against the anti-Asian hatred. “If you see someone being attacked, do whatever you can. Make noise. Report what’s going on. Go ahead and try to help. Call for help immediately. Call for help. We must. all be part of the solution. We cannot stand back and watch a heinous act happen. “
The company which manages the building, The Brodsky Organization, has since announced that it has suspended the guard temporarily, pending further investigation, and assured “to condemn all forms of discrimination, racism and xenophobia”. At the same time, the union said the two men present “immediately called for help”, and “urged the public to avoid hasty judgment while the facts are established”.
The alleged assailant was arrested on Wednesday, March 31. According to a New York police spokesperson, the man named Brandon Elliot is said to have been released from prison in 2019 after being convicted in 2002 of the murder of his own mother.
In New York, a 1,300% rise in anti-Asian crimes
Entrusted to the New York Police Hate Crimes Unit, the case joins many similar cases. The NYPD thus found a 1,300% increase in racist crimes against Asian Americans since March 2020. Between early January and Sunday, March 28, 33 of this violence was recorded, against 11 over the same period last year.
Among them are the cases of a 68-year-old man beaten in a subway, a 37-year-old woman assaulted on her way to a demonstration against violence against Asians and a 54-year-old woman beaten. in the face with a metal pipe, lists the American media NPR. Or, in Atlanta this time, six women were killed in three massage parlors by a 21-year-old white man on March 16.
The organization Stop AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) Hate claims that between March 2020 and February 2021, it received 3,795 reports of anti-Asian hate incidents in the country. Only a fraction of what’s really going on, she specifies. Verbal harassment thus represents 68% of them, physical assault 11% and finally, women are 2.3 times more likely to be confronted with it. Frightening figures that the anti-racist mobilization continues to condemn.
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