(New York) The Manhattan District Attorney announced Thursday that his team is working on the highest number of crimes against people of Asian descent since a special unit was established more than a decade ago. The announcement comes the day after a South Korean diplomat was attacked in New York.
Posted at 5:11 p.m.
“Unfortunately, our office is currently investigating 33 racial hate crime cases motivated by anti-Asian bias, the most (highest number) we have had since our racial crimes unit was established in 2010” , said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Four times more than in 2020
He added that he had prosecuted “nearly four times more anti-Asian hate crimes” in 2021 compared to the previous year.
Racist attacks against people of Asian descent have increased in the United States since 2020 and the beginnings of the coronavirus pandemic. Some activists blame the rhetoric employed by former President Donald Trump who referred to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus”.
Authorities in New York have also attributed the rise in attacks to psychiatric disorders in a large number of perpetrators, problems exacerbated by the disruption of social services during the pandemic, which has hit the largest American city hard.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg released the numbers when announcing the indictment of a 50-year-old suspect in the April 23, 2021, attack in the East Harlem neighborhood of Yao Pan Ma, a Chinese immigrant from 61, died of his injuries on December 31. The suspect, who was already charged with racially motivated crimes, was charged with murder.
A South Korean diplomat with the country’s mission to the UN was injured after being assaulted by “an unidentified man” in New York on Wednesday evening, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, which is not did not specify if it was a racist attack.