Violent attacks on older people with Eastern traits, to steal money or simply to harm, have increased.
Robberies, armed robberies and assaults on the elderly for no apparent reason. The neighborhoods of Chinatown in the United States are experiencing a wave of crime that has prompted their neighbors to organize themselves in self-defense patrols and denounce a type of racism that is often overlooked.
In Oakland’s Chinatown, California, one of the most affected by violence, about twenty young Asians who call themselves “ Asians with Attitudes ” (Asians with Character) gather almost every day to walk the streets of the neighborhood, talking with shopkeepers. talking and making sure that no one commits crimes, all of them, according to what they say, without carrying firearms.
Dressed in black T-shirts and masks with the group’s logo, the teenagers follow their leader, the burly Jimmy Bounpheng, through the streets of Chinatown, imposing in his baggy dress, a cap with an upside-down peak and a large gold pendant.
“I want you to know we’re here for you so it doesn’t happen again,” Jimmy tells the owner of a store in the heart of Chinatown that sells everything from sneakers to kitchenware.
“Thank you very much, thank you very much,” she replies, nodding her head, confirming, in response to a question from Efe, that she has felt safer since she was visited by the patrol.
Since the start of the pandemic, but especially in the first months of 2021, videos of violent attacks on elderly people with oriental traits have been circulating on the Internet, in some cases to steal money or other belongings and in others, for no apparent reason, just for to harm them.
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A man died after being rammed
The latter category includes two of the episodes that have sparked the most outrage: that of Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, who died after being brutally attacked in San Francisco by Antoine Watson, 19 years old; and that of a 91-year-old man pushed to the ground from behind in broad daylight in Oakland’s Chinatown.
“In recent weeks alone, there have been more than a dozen attacks on the elderly,” explains Leanna Louie, a US Army veteran and one of the founders of the United Peace Corps of volunteer civilians patrolling Chinatown. from San Francisco.
“This is nothing new. Attacks on Asian Americans have been taking place since 1882 with the Chinese Exclusion Act. We have always been blamed for being the ones taking jobs from other people. But that’s not true, we are willing to do jobs. that many other people don’t want to do, ”says Louie.
Allegations of racist attacks
Despite having ancient roots, the problem has recently gotten worse and has also taken on an even more racial tone due to the fact that many of the aggressors of Asian elders – including those in the two cases mentioned above – are young. African Americans.
After a year, 2020, in which racial tensions reached their highest point over the death of African American George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer, many in the Asian community now feel that these attacks are also motivated by a racism hardly each speaks.
However, social justice activists and the Black Lives Matter (“Black lives matter”) movement warn of the risk of confrontation with two racial minority communities that they believe should work together.
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Support from African Americans
“I came here to support the Asian community against violence and to let them know that not everyone feels this hatred and hostility towards them,” said Carolyn Ransom-Scott, an African-American nun who comes to Oakland to patrol the United States. Asian vigilantes.
Although well received by shopkeepers and the community at large, these patrols are viewed with concern by the police, who last week asked neighbors not to arm themselves after a trafficker was arrested for shooting a thief multiple times he took the camera. from photographing a passerby.
No one was injured in the incident and the thief managed to flee with the camera, but Oakland police chief African-American LeRonne Armstrong warned that “when guns are fired there may be collateral” and asked neighbors to “take good care of it. to be”. witnesses ”instead of vigilantes.
Since the start of the pandemic, attacks on civilians of Asian descent have increased enormously. The Stop AAPI Hate campaign, which documents incidents of racial violence, received 2,808 reports of Asian-American cases between March and December.
New York police, for their part, have noted that hate crimes against this minority in the city have increased 1,900 percent throughout 2020.
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