{"id":9131,"date":"2021-05-19T11:26:11","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T15:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/?p=9131"},"modified":"2023-10-30T19:43:27","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T23:43:27","slug":"majority-of-anti-aapi-hate-incidents-are-not-a-hate-crime-how-are-we-dealing-with-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/safe-horizon-in-the-news\/majority-anti-aapi-hate-incidents-not-hate-crime","title":{"rendered":"Majority of Anti-AAPI Hate Incidents are not a Hate Crime. How are we Dealing With Them?"},"content":{"rendered":"

USA TODAY<\/em>
\nBy Kristine Phillips<\/em>
\nMay 19, 2021<\/em><\/p>\n

Excerpt:<\/em><\/p>\n

Jasmine Li’s daughter ignored the group of boys. The fifth grader was standing at the curb outside her Southern California elementary school one day in October, waiting for her parents to pick her up, when they asked her if she had COVID-19.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, she walked to the school’s front office to see if one of the staffers could call her parents. She passed by a bigger group of boys, including the ones who taunted her earlier.<\/p>\n

They chanted “COVID” as she walked by. Again, she ignored them.<\/p>\n

“She said she was almost in tears when she got to the front office,” Li said. “You would think that school is the one place where you don’t have to worry about this issue \u2026 but unfortunately, that’s not the case.”<\/p>\n

Li, a Chinese American living in Aliso Viejo, Calif., has heard stories of harassment and attacks against Asian American and Pacific Islanders since the start of the pandemic last year. But she never thought it would happen to her child, at her school, in a state with the largest Asian population in the country.<\/p>\n

“It’s really disheartening to hear my daughter, a 10-year-old, getting this experience at school,” Li said, “the one place where they should be safe and safe from harassment.” Li asked USA TODAY not to name her daughter or her school for fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n

There have been thousands of similar stories of bias- or hate-motivated conduct fueled by a false rhetoric that blamed the pandemic on the AAPI community. Though the news has been dominated by videos of violent and sometimes deadly attacks, less attention has been paid to this vast gray area of verbal harassment that is neither a criminal nor civil rights violation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In New York City, a group called Safe Horizon<\/strong>, which provides resources and counseling to crime and abuse victims, reports hate incidents to the city’s human rights commission for data gathering.<\/p>\n

“With data, it produces resources and education for the community,” said Queenie Ng<\/strong>, a clinical forensic specialist at Safe Horizon.<\/p>\n

‘One gaping hole’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ng said she has been called derogatory names so many times since last year that she’s lost count.<\/p>\n

Early in the pandemic, she said, a city bus driver pulled up and yelled a racial slur at her as she was standing near Central Park in Manhattan. Another time, somebody called her the same racial slur in a building lobby.<\/p>\n

Such “sidewalk harassment” is “one gaping hole” in the government’s power to do anything, said William Yeomans, a former Justice Department attorney who spent nearly three decades enforcing civil rights laws and prosecuting hate crimes and others.<\/p>\n

“If somebody calls somebody names on the street and harasses them, the federal government is not authorized to do anything about that,” Yeomans said. “There are serious First Amendment consequences.”<\/p>\n

Absent any threats or physical harm, the government has limited power to do anything, no matter how ugly or hurtful the speech is. Even if the recipient of verbal abuse felt threatened or intimidated, charging an instigator who did not make an explicit threat is challenging because prosecutors must prove that the harasser intendedto threaten someone, Yeomans said.<\/p>\n

Read the original article here.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With anti-AAPI violence increasing, Safe Horizon’s Queenie Ng explains how hate crime data can help produce resources and education for the community to help unlearn racism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":{"id":9685,"alt_text":"Support children and families in domestic violence shelters","caption":"Peggy Duffy Memorial fund","description":"Support children and families in domestic violence shelters","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":512,"height":512,"file":"2022\/07\/Safe-Horizon-Flower-Logo_TransparentThumbnail.png","filesize":31715,"sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Safe-Horizon-Flower-Logo_TransparentThumbnail-300x300.png","width":300,"height":300,"mime-type":"image\/png","filesize":18595,"source_url":"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Safe-Horizon-Flower-Logo_TransparentThumbnail-300x300.png"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Safe-Horizon-Flower-Logo_TransparentThumbnail-150x150.png","width":150,"height":150,"mime-type":"image\/png","filesize":8008,"source_url":"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Safe-Horizon-Flower-Logo_TransparentThumbnail-150x150.png"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":9684,"source_url":"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Safe-Horizon-Flower-Logo_TransparentThumbnail.png"},"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[76,1627,1635,1637,1483,749,565],"class_list":["post-9131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-safe-horizon-in-the-news","tag-2016-new-york-city-challenge-race","tag-aapi","tag-aapi-racism","tag-anti-asian","tag-anti-racism","tag-hate-crime","tag-hate-crimes","issue-victims-of-other-abuse"],"acf":{"page_header_title":"","title_font_size":"42","page_header_excerpt":"","sub-headline_placement":false,"page_header_image":false,"custom_scripts":false,"show_author_bio":false,"original_url":"","related_initiative_title":"Help for Hate Crime Survivors","related_initiative_link":"https:\/\/www.safehorizon.org\/hatecrimes","related_initiative_link_text":"Visit our Hate Crimes Resources page","featured_posts":[{"ID":8396,"post_author":"13","post_date":"2021-04-02 17:11:38","post_date_gmt":"2021-04-02 21:11:38","post_content":" \r\n\r\nApril 2, 2021<\/em>\r\nBy Evangeline Chan and Queenie Ng\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\r\n\r\nSince the\u00a0<\/span>onset of the\u00a0<\/span>COVID-19 pandemic<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0racism\u00a0<\/span>and violence\u00a0<\/span>against the\u00a0<\/span>Asian<\/span>, Asian<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>American<\/span>\u00a0and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community has increased.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Racism manifests in different ways and our communities have experienced everything from<\/span>\u00a0physical attacks, verbal harassment, and violence leading to death<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>as\u00a0<\/span>seen\u00a0<\/span>in the f<\/span>atal<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>shootings<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>at Atlanta-based massage parlors<\/span>\u00a0in March 2021<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nAt Safe Horizon, we believe racism is violence<\/span>. We<\/span>\u00a0s<\/span>tand with\u00a0<\/span>the AAPI\u00a0<\/span>communities<\/span>\u00a0who\u00a0<\/span>have\u00a0<\/span>experience<\/span>d<\/span>\u00a0the trauma of racism<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>long\u00a0<\/span>before the\u00a0<\/span>pandemic<\/span>\u00a0and even\u00a0<\/span>more so<\/span>\u00a0now<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>We also call for advocates and\u00a0<\/span>allie<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0to come together and\u00a0<\/span>support our fellow community members.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nIf you find yourself asking how you can help,<\/span>\u00a0show up and be an ally to the AAPI community<\/span>, here are six ways to do so<\/span>:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n

    \r\n \t
  1. Check in<\/b> with Your AAPI Friends, Family,<\/b> Colleagues,<\/b> and Community Members<\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\r\n