Violent attacks on elderly people of oriental traits, to steal money from them or only to cause them harm, have multiplied.
Robberies, armed robberies and assaults on the elderly for no apparent reason. The Chinatown of the United States is experiencing a wave of crime that has led its neighbors to organize in self-defense patrols and to denounce a type of racism that is often overlooked.
In Chinatown, Oakland, California, one of the most affected by the violence, about twenty young Asians who call themselves “Asians With Attitudes” gather almost every day to walk the streets of the neighborhood, talk to the shopkeepers and ensure that no one commits crimes, all this, they say, without carrying firearms.
Dressed in black T-shirts and masks with the group logo printed on them, the teenagers follow their leader, the corpulent Jimmy Bounpheng, imposing with his loose-fitting clothes, a cap with a visor upside down and a large pendant, through the streets of the Chinatown. golden.
“I want them to know we’re here for you, so it doesn’t happen again,” Jimmy addresses the owner of a store in the heart of Chinatown where everything from sneakers to kitchen utensils is sold.
“Thank you very much, thank you very much,” she replies while nodding, and states, in response to a question from Efe, that she feels safer since she receives patrol visits.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, but especially in these first months of 2021, videos of violent attacks on elderly people of oriental traits have circulated on the internet, in some cases to steal money or other possessions and in others , for no apparent reason, solely to cause them harm.
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A man died after being attacked
The latter category includes two of the episodes that have raised the most outrage: that of Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, who died after being brutally assaulted in San Francisco by 19-year-old Antoine Watson; and that of a 91-year-old man who was pushed to the ground by his back in broad daylight in Oakland’s Chinatown.
“In the last few weeks alone, there have been more than a dozen attacks on the elderly,” Leanne Louie, a U.S. Army veteran and one of the founders of the United Peace Corps, made up of volunteer citizens, told Efe. patrolling the Chinatown of San Francisco.
“This is nothing new. Attacks on Asian Americans have been going on since 1882 with the Chinese Exclusion Act. We have always been blamed for being the ones who take work out of other people. But that’s not true, we’re willing. to do jobs that a lot of other people don’t want to do, ”Louie points out.
Accusations of racist attacks
Despite having ancient roots, the problem has worsened in recent times, and has also taken on an even more racial tone because much of the perpetrators of Asian seniors – including those in the two cases mentioned above – are young African Americans.
After a year, 2020, in which racial tensions culminated in 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 racism. which is hardly spoken of.
However, activists advocating for social justice and the Black Lives Matter movement (“Black Lives Matter”) warn of the risk of confronting two racial minority communities that they believe should work together.
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The support of African Americans
“I came here to support the Asian community against violence and to let them know that not everyone feels this hatred and animosity towards them,” Carolyn Ransom-Scott, an African-American nun who goes to Oakland to patrol the US, told Efe. side of the Asian vigilantes.
Although well received by shopkeepers and the community at large, these patrols are viewed with concern by police, who last week urged residents not to arm themselves after a trader was arrested for repeatedly firing a thief who he stole the camera from a passerby.
No one was injured in the incident and the thief managed to escape with the camera, but Oakland Police Chief African-American LeRonne Armstrong has warned that “when guns are fired there may be collateral casualties.” ask neighbors to be “good witnesses” instead of justices.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, attacks on Asian citizens have erupted. The Stop AAPI Hate campaign, which documents cases of racial violence, received 2,808 reports of Asian-American cases between March and December.
For its part, the New York Police Department has noted that hate crimes against this minority grew by 1900 percent in the city throughout 2020.
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