Melissa Min (L) attends a vigil with her son James in solidarity with the Asian American community after increasing attacks on the community since the start of the coronavirus pandemic a year ago, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , USA, March 17, 2021.
Rachel Wisniewski | Reuters
President Joe Biden on Friday urged Congress to “quickly pass” hate crime legislation to address rising discrimination and violence against Asian Americans during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act aims to increase the Department of Justice’s oversight of coronavirus-related hate crimes, provide support to state and local law enforcement agencies, and make hate crime information more accessible. for Asian American communities.
The move comes days after a shooting in Georgia that killed eight people, including six Asian women. President and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet with Asian American leaders in Atlanta on Friday.
“While we still don’t know the reasons, as I said last week, we condemn in the strongest possible terms the crisis of sexist and anti-Asian violence that our nation has suffered for a long time,” Biden said in a statement.
The endorsement also comes a day after a congressional hearing on violence against Asian Americans, the first in 34 years.
Biden and several lawmakers and activists in the group on Thursday pressured Congress to pass hate crime legislation introduced by Rep. Grace Meng, DN.Y., and Sen. Mazie K. Hirono, D-Hawaii, in early ‘this month.
Senator Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, is seen during the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland, a candidate for attorney general, on Monday, February 22, 2021.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
A study by advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate published on Tuesday recorded 3,795 reports of hate incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders between March 19, 2020 and February 28, 2021.
Incidents include verbal insults, physical assaults, job discrimination and online harassment, among other forms of prejudice. Many of the incidents were reported retroactively from 2020 onwards.
The group stresses that the count represents only a fraction of the number of hate incidents experienced by Asian Americans across the country.
Some political leaders and advocates during the congressional hearing noted that hate crime legislation does not necessarily address all forms of hatred experienced by Asian Americans.
At a news conference in Atlanta on Thursday morning, Georgia State Representative Bee Nguyen said, “Hate crime laws are not preventive. They are then used as a prosecution tool.”
To prosecute hate crimes, law enforcement needs to find evidence that the incidents are racially motivated.
“While many of the recent anti-Asian incidents may not meet the legal definition of a hate crime, these attacks create an unacceptable environment of fear and terror in Asian American communities,” said Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. . House board.