Demonstrations erupted on Wednesday to protest violence against Asian Americans in several cities after a shooting in Atlanta left eight people dead, six of whom were Asian women.
In Washington, DC, approximately 200 people gathered in the city’s Chinatown neighborhood. Protesters held a vigil and marched and sang around the city, carrying placards that said “Asian life matters” and more.
Meanwhile, in Washington DC: Protesters gathered in Chinatown for #StopAsianHate pic.twitter.com/KThNMDRVgJ
– philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) March 17, 2021
He #StopAsianHate protest organized by @tlcollectivedc is in motion. Penn Quarter remains and is now at the 9th & NY NW Convention Center. (@ wusa9) pic.twitter.com/XGiiySZm9R
– John Henry (@JohnHenryWUSA) March 18, 2021
“I’m angry. I’m furious,” Janet Namkung, who attended the vigil, told NBC4 in Washington. “I know people who have been called all sorts of insults, who fear their lives on the street every day.”
In New York City, hundreds of people gathered in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of New York City, an area where there is a large Asian American population, to watch and protest against increased violence against Asian Americans, the New York Times reported.
Members of the group held candles and made tearful speeches, according to the Times, in addition to singing “Stop the Hate.”
Angelica Acevedo, a local journalist, shared photos and videos of the vigil on Twitter.
Dozens gathered at Diversity Plaza tonight in a vigil to mourn the eight victims, 6 of whom were Asian and American women, of last night’s mass shooting in Atlanta and to condemn the rise in anti-hate crimes. Asians. pic.twitter.com/VJ4soNwEo2
– Angelica M. Acevedo (@ angacevedo15) March 18, 2021
Jackson Heights resident Chuck Park said he is afraid of his family. He spoke of his parents, who have owned a store on 74th St for 35 years, returning home with stories of assault.
Park also brought flowers for people to share with sex workers and small business owners in the area. pic.twitter.com/sLKMOspQrw
– Angélica M. Acevedo (@ angacevedo15) March 18, 2021
In Atlanta, memorials were set up outside the massage parlors where the shootings took place earlier this week, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Cindy Anderson, a resident of Cherokee County, USA, placed a plant outside one of the massage parlors, Youngs Asian Massage, and told the newspaper that the deaths in the shooting “weighed on her heart.” .
“They are our neighbors and they deserved better than that,” he said through tears. “These people came to work yesterday, just like they do every day of the week.”
Atlanta police said Wednesday it was too early to determine whether shooting at the city’s massage parlors constitutes a hate crime.
The alleged gunman, Robert Aaron Long, who is white, claimed the attacks had no racial motivation, according to authorities, adding that the 21-year-old suspect said he had a “sexual addiction”.
A recent study by the California State University Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism showed that hate crimes against Asian Americans in 16 of the country’s largest cities increased by nearly 150 % in 2020 in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
The nonprofit organization Stop AAPI Hate said Tuesday it has received nearly 3,800 reports of hate incidents against Asian Americans over the past year.
President Biden
Joe Biden The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – Forget Comfort in Congress Rising Borders Mixes Debate on Immigration in the Senate Republican Party Examines Measures to Ban Trans Athletes from Gathering Voters last week condemned “vicious hate crimes” against Asian American and Pacific island communities during an early speech marking the first anniversary of US pandemic restrictions
“It’s wrong. It’s anti-American. And it has to stop,” Biden said.