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Oakland California's Chinatown Faces a Drastic Increase In Crime Rate

By: Niku Sedarat

February 9, 2021


Use URL above to view the popular instagram post^ (credits to @sundae.school on instagram)


Over the past months, it has become evident that the pandemic has caused a significant increase in the hate crimes against the Asian-American community. Some people, including former president Donald Trump, blame the Asian community for "starting the coronavirus" which is why many believe hate crime towards the Asian community has increased so much. Bay Area is facing an alarming amount of incidents from burglaries and robberies in chinatown, to an incident where 84 year old male Vicha Ratanapakdee was assaulted and killed. These are just some of the tragic incidents that have taken place. Overall, it has been reported that there is approximately a whopping 2,800 hate crimes against Asian Americans since late 2019 when the Coronavirus first appeared in Wuhan, China.


Now, the Oakland police department is warning residents living in the Chinatown area to expect a surge in hate crime as Lunar New year is approaching on February 12th. According to CBSN BAY AREA, "The department said it has re-allocated resources and added police patrols to the area." The Asian community in New York have also shown a concern in the growing number of hate crime and have urged the NYPD to take action. As a result, the NYPD formed a task force to directly address the increase in hate crimes against the Asian community. The House of Representatives has also worked on taking action on the rise of racism against the Asian community due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

See the following URL for more information on how the House of Representative has been taking action...


Unfortunately, xenophobia toward the Asian community has been an enduring misfortune in American history. Post Coronavirus pandemic it wasn't uncommon for people of Asian descent to be called racist names and physically assaulted, asian owned businesses to be vandalized, and even set on fire. In the 1880's congress passed the Asian Exclusion Act which prevented Asian immigrants from entering the United States in fear of "asian invasion". During World War II close to 120,000 Japanese-Americans were sent to internment camps because they were seen as a risk, and before that many people including public activists depicted Asians as unclean and believed Asian-American communities were a risk to the health of the nation!


According to National Geographic, "America has been slow to acknowledge its anti-Asian history. In 1988, President Ronald Reagan apologized and paid restitution to survivors of Japanese internment camps. The Supreme Court ruling that enabled internment was overturned in 2018, and California apologized for its role earlier this year. In 2011, the U.S. Senate formally apologized for the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the House followed the next year." However we have to remember that acknowledging isn't the same as resolving the racism against Asians. Still, many Asian-Americans fear and face racism routinely.


 

Citations-->


“Act Now.” STOP AAPI HATE - ACT NOW, stopaapihate.org/actnow/.


Bhargava, Hansa D. “Coronavirus History: How Did Coronavirus Start?” WebMD, WebMD, 15 Apr. 2020, www.webmd.com/lung/coronavirus-history.


“COVID-19 and the Surge in Anti-Asian Hate Crimes.” Medical News Today, MediLexicon International, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/covid-19-and-the-surge-in-anti-asian-hate-crimes.


Harding, Adam. “MTA Denounces Anti-Asian Verbal Attack Seen on NYC Subway.” NBC New York, NBC New York, 14 Aug. 2020, www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/mta-denounces-anti-asian-verbal-attack-seen-on-nyc-subway/2567378/.


Romero, Dennis. “New York Police Create Asian Hate Crimes Task Force.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 19 Aug. 2020, www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/new-york-police-create-asian-hate-crimes-task-force-n1237193.


Sten, Photograh by Heather. “America's Long History of Scapegoating Its Asian Citizens.” History & Culture, 6 Sept. 2020, www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/09/asian-american-racism-covid/.


Yu, Betty. “Oakland Police Warn Of Increased Chinatown Crime; Incidents Against Asian Americans Increasing.” CBS San Francisco, CBS San Francisco, 2 Feb. 2021, sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/02/02/oakland-police-warn-of-increased-chinatown-crime-incidents-against-asian-americans-increasing/.

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