Anti-Asian crimes explode 361% in New York City

On Dec. 1, a man hurled anti-Asian-slurs at an Asian woman waiting for a subway train. Security cameras show that a man approached the lone woman on a nearly empty subway platform, insulted her and then slapped her on the face as she tried to escape.

A video of the unprovoked attack was released Sunday. The 58-year old woman refused medical assistance but the incident is being investigated by New York City's Anti-Hate task force.

Verbal and physical attacks against Asians have been increasing in frequency on the subway and streets of New York.. The latest attack at the 174th Street 2 and 5 subway station has been added to the total of 129 anti-Asian attacks in New York City, according to new statistics collected by the New York Police Department's Hate Crime Review Panel, a civilian group that helps law enforcement identify potential hate crimes, 

Incidents targeting people of Asian descent has increased 361% this year, which has two weeks to go. In 2020, there were only 28 reported hate crimes against AAPI. Nationallly, an FBI report found anti-Asian hate crimes increased 73%.

The alarming increase “is consistent with a general surge in racism against Asian Americans, first of all," said Russell Jeung, co-founder of the hate incident reporting forum Stop AAPI Hate. "It’s consistent with the increase in crimes during the epidemic. And then thirdly, reflective of the Asian American community more likely to report."

Stop AAPI Hate, a community-based organization, reports that there have been over 10,000 hate incidents since it began collecting self-reported bias incidents in March of 2020, when the pandemic hit the U.S. 

The NYPD report  reflects a nationwide trend of increased attacks against Asians in the last two years, spurred in part by the pandemic whose origins have been traced to China and the rise of white supremacist sentiment and partially blamed on the Trump administration's use of "China Virus," or "Kung Flu," in referring to the coronavirus.

“The anti-China rhetoric, the white supremacy — that does influence all sectors of society and that Asians are portrayed as outsiders either to the country or to a neighborhood,” Jeung said. 

Overall, the NYPD reports that there have been over 500 hate crimes this year resulting in 250 arrests. The number of hate incidents are probably higher but have not met the legal requirements to be labeled as a hate crime, which has to have evidence that the attack was based on the victim's race, ethnicity or religion.

While hate crimes against Asians saw the biggest jump, the study found hate crimes directed towards Jews jumped from 121 to 183, while hate crimes based on sexual orientation jumped from 29 to 85.