In an exclusive interview, CeFaan Kim talks to a woman who believes she was the victim of a violent hate crime after a random, unprovoked attack on a subway train left her bloodied and beaten.
Herbert, who is founder of the statewide organization Advocates Without Borders, emphasized that certain things in the local government need to be done in order for the streets to be safer. We don t want our police forces defunded, so that way we can get these individuals off the street, he said. We have to make sure they identify bail reform. Bail reform is good, but there s problems with it, it has to be tweaked. We are letting folks commit crimes, and they are getting a pass to get out of the jail before the ink is even dry on the complaints, only to come back to hurt somebody else. That has to stop.
Loo says he was infuriated and says it was inspiration for him to create the task force. Historically Asian Americans have been victims at a disproportionate rate in New York City, Loo said. And the service they get from the police department, they don t really look for it because they don t speak English, they re afraid of the police, there s cultural barriers and differences.
But a number of community leaders have been questioning how effective the task force has been, including community leader Don Lee, who helped that Brooklyn grandmother. We don t see any actual support given to them. We don t see accountability. How can you have accountability when everyone is a volunteer? Lee said. This is a good step in the right direction.
The NYPD has been slow to classify the attacks as hate crimes. Asian Americans - we work hard and were raised to work hard. This attack is being done by a very small bad actor, said rallygoer Van Le.
A solidarity walk was held Saturday night in Chinatown, organized by SafeWalks, to show further support for the Asian community. We are definitely here to help, in what way we are still finding out, said SafeWalks volunteer Jen Goma.
The SafeWalks group was founded just last month by Peter Kerre from Brooklyn to keep locals safe after several women were attacked near his home in Bushwick. Now his focus is on Chinatown after four assaults on Asians.
Hundreds from across New York City and the Tri-State showed up in Washington Square Park on Saturday to denounce recent crimes against Asians in New York City and show support for the Asian community.