Asian Americans are facing twin crises: the COVID-19 pandemic and a wave of hate.
In December, police said a group of people attacked an Asian American woman on a train in Manhattan while making anti-Asian comments related to the coronavirus. Another man allegedly spat on an Asian American woman on a Bronx train in the summer, yelling: “Asians caused the virus! Go back to China! Go back to Manhattan!”
And just last month, a man allegedly stabbed a 36-year-old Asian man in Chinatown. While the NYPD said the suspect would be charged with a hate crime, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office declined to prosecute the attack as a hate crime because of insufficient evidence the attacker saw the victim’s face. Local Asian American activists have decried the decision not to charge the man with a hate crime.