New York: The Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY) announced the release of its second report on anti-Asian hate and violence in New York City, titled Endless Tide: The Continuing Struggle to Overcome Anti-Asian Hate in New York.
Endless Tide recounts the surge in anti-Asian violence in New York at the start of 2021 and laments the absence of any sustained effort to reduce hate and violence against the AAPI community in New York. The report details statistical data compiled from news reports and publicly available sources which showed 233 anti-Asian attacks during the first three quarters of 2021. Of these reported attacks 7 resulted in a guilty plea to a hate crime. The report also discusses specific cases that AABANY worked on during 2021 which underscored the difficulty in seeking accountability and justice from incidents of anti-Asian violence.
The report was produced by AABANY’s Anti-Asian Violence Task Force, which was formed after the release of AABANY’s first anti-Asian violence report in 2021. The Co-Executive Editors of the 2022 report are Sylvia Chin, Elaine Chiu, Karen King and Chris Kwok, all members of the Task Force. Sylvia Chin is also President of the Asian American Law Fund of New York (AALFNY), AABANY’s 501(c)(3) affiliate.
AABANY and AALFNY dedicate the Endless Tide report to the memory of Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American man murdered 40 years ago outside of Detroit by out-of-work autoworkers who blamed him for the loss of their jobs due to the popularity of Japanese imports.
A press conference was held at the offices of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison to announce the release of the report. AABANY was joined by Eva Zhao, the widow of Zhiwen Yan, the delivery worker who was murdered in Forest Hills at the end of April. Eva is 38 years old with three children. Also delivering remarks were Council Member Sandra Ung, State Senator John Liu, Assembly Member Ron Kim, Loretta Lynch, Partner at Paul, Weiss and former United States Attorney General and Scott Richman, Regional Director, NY/NJ, for the ADL.
“The report’s findings are troubling and raise a call to action to elected officials, law enforcement and the legal community to step up efforts to fight hate in all its forms. AABANY hopes that in recounting the experience of New York’s AAPI community in its continuing struggle against anti-Asian hate, we can come together to develop long-lasting and workable solutions to turn the tide against hate,” states AABANY President William Ng.
For more information, contact Yang Chen, AABANY Executive Director, at (646) 653-2168, or direct any inquiries to [email protected].
The report proposes several solutions, including:
(1) Improve Public Hate Crime Data Reporting
(2) Recognize the Community as Victim and Investigative Partner
(3) Develop Better Guidance for Hate Crime Investigations
(4) Reform the Hate Crimes Law
(5) Fully Fund the Study, Prevention, and Prosecution of Hate Crimes
(6) Develop Anti-Bias Programming, Training in Cultural Sensitivity, and Trauma-Assisted Counseling
(7) Remedy Barriers to Reporting of Hate Incidents
(8) Improve Investigative Training and Tools Available to Government Agencies.
(9) Revisit Bail Reform
