Citing an increase in hate-related incidents toward those with Asian or Pacific Islander ethnicity during the coronavirus pandemic, Los Angeles County officials are encouraging victims to make reports to local law enforcement.
From February to April, the county had more than 100 reports of hate incidents related to the pandemic, said Robin Toma, the executive director of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission, during a virtual town hall on Wednesday.
“These involve a wide range of incidents,” Toma said.
A person reported that another should be evicted from an apartment complex because the second is Asian and therefore has the virus. A woman walking her dog was verbally assaulted by a man claiming she had the virus just because she is Asian.
A bomb threat targeted a major Asian institution.
“It’s not happening just in any one part of the county, but all parts,” Toma said. “The majority of the targets and reports are coming from women.”
The town hall, called by Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, included L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, Los Angeles Police Department Deputy Chief Dominic Choi and Marju Kulkarni, executive director of the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council.
The Council, which has a reporting center online, has received reports of 1,700-plus hate incidents that have taken place in the United States since the start of the pandemic, Kulkarni said, adding that 58% were from New York and California.
The increase in hate incidents is likely because the coronavirus originated in China, leading some, including President Donald Trump, to initially call COVID-19 the “Chinese virus.”
People may be looking for scapegoats, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said.
“Certainly there are people out there looking for someone to blame for certain situations, and it’s wrong,” she said.
But while incidents have been on the rise, reporting them to law enforcement has not, officials said.
(Hate incidents may not necessarily elevate to hate crimes.)
Many people don’t report hate crimes because they’re afraid of retaliation, public ridicule or have a distrust of law enforcement, Lacey said.
“These incidents are happening more and more, but they aren’t being reported,” Deputy Chief Choi said. “We need to encourage people to report it.
“Even if you don’t think anything can be done, we can still analyze data and respond to (hate incidents) based on data and patterns,” he said.
Feuer said his office had not received any hate-related cases this year.
Lacey said a convicton for an assault, vandalism or a criminal threat could bring the defendant one to three more years of prison time if her office can prove hate was a motivating factor.
Hate incidents can be reported to an LAPD station or a street cop or on an L.A. County’s website, 211la.org.
“All of us need to inspire people to come forward if they feel victimized,” City Attorney Feuer said. “We have one crisis, a public-health crisis – we cannot allow it to become a human-relations crisis that will tear our communities apart.”
