At least 10 suspected anti-Asian hate crimes have been committed in New York City between January 1 and March 14 this year, according to statistics from the New York Police Department’s Hate Crime Task Force.
The information highlights the recent spate of anti-Asian incidents felt in cities nationwide, coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic that began last year.
In 2020, there were 29 reported racially-motivated crimes against people of Asian descent in New York City, and 24 of those were attributed to “coronavirus motivation,” according to NYPD data. Racially motivated crimes against people of Asian descent in 2019 totaled three.
The NYPD says it has increased its presence around predominantly Asian communities and placed Critical Response Command teams throughout the city in light of the shootings on Tuesday in the Atlanta area that left eight people dead – six of them, Asian women. Authorities in Georgia are not calling the shootings a hate crime at this point and pointed to potential claims the suspect made that he has a sex addiction.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a news briefing Wednesday there was “a major deployment of NYPD counterterrorism forces” in prominent Asian communities, noting “wherever we get any reports of concern we’re going to make sure to have real strong presence.”
Three recent possible hate crimes are under investigation
Several recent incidents in New York are being investigated as possible hate crimes by the NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force and Asian Hate Crime Task Force, according to police.
Just before 7 p.m. on Monday, a man in his 20’s approached a 41-year-old Asian woman at Eighth Avenue and West 37th Avenue in Midtown NYC, according to the NYPD.
The man poured a liquid on the woman’s neck and the packages she was carrying, according to the police. The woman claims the man told her to “go back to China” before he left the scene.
The woman, who was uninjured, reported the attack to the NYPD, police confirmed. The NYPD Asian Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the incident.
In another incident on Sunday, a 25-year-old woman told the NYPD she was waiting to cross the street near East 22nd Street and First Avenue when a female suspect approached her and said, “you aren’t from around here … go back to China” which the victim told police made her “fearful for her safety” and caused “annoyance and alarm.”
Then, the same suspect told a 31-year-old man to “Go back to communist China” which caused him to feel “annoyed harassed and alarmed,” police told CNN. The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating this incidents.
The NYPD additionally reported an incident on February 15 when a 27-year-old man says he was pushed by an unknown individual while heading to his car.
The alleged victim asked why he was pushed, police said, and the suspect made “anti Asian (sic) statements and punched the victim in the face.” The NYPD’s Asian Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating.
CNN’s Mark Morales and Travis Caldwell contributed to this report.