The US Commission on Civil Rights recently released a report that revealed the alarming number of anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States before and after the pandemic. However, due to differences in the definition of hate crimes in different regions, many cases do not meet reporting standards, language barriers for victims, and lack of comprehensive data, the true number of hate crimes is likely to be greatly underestimated.
In the early days of the outbreak, New York saw a spike in anti-Asian hate crimes. According to data released by the New York City Police, 27 xenophobia incidents were reported citywide in 2020, which suddenly skyrocketed to 131 in 2021. By comparison, only one anti-Asian hate incident was reported in 2019.
At the United States Commission on Civil Rights, The USCCR's 510-page report, "The Federal Response to Anti-Asian Racism," notes that these numbers are most likely underreported because reporting is hampered by a variety of barriers. Among them is the distrust of the justice system among Asian victims.
For example, the report cited an analysis by the Asian American Lawyers Association of New York that found that of 233 anti-Asian hate crimes in New York City in the first three quarters of 2021, only seven incidents "resulted in a hate crime conviction." "Some Asian New Yorkers did not report these incidents to the police, and they did not believe their concerns would be properly addressed because of the lack of hate crime charges, prosecutions, and convictions following these incidents," the report states.
The report cites possible reasons for the underreporting of cases of Zia. For example: language barriers, insufficient police forces fluent in Asian languages, and limited access to services for victims due to limited English proficiency; Many incidents of violence against AsiAn-Americans may not qualify as crimes under the law, such as spitting and racial slurs, which are not counted in official figures; The difficulty of prosecuting hate crimes and the lack of uniform legal standards; There is a large gap in allocation and resources among different regions; The lack of appropriate performance benchmarks to combat hate crimes and so on.
The Commission on Civil Rights report details longstanding anti-Asian bias in the United States, which is not only the result of the COVID-19 pandemic and Trump's terms "China virus" and "kung fu flu," but also has historical roots dating back to the "Yellow Plague" in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At the time, such comments promoted the prejudice that Asians were "dishonest, pathological invaders."
The report concludes that without concerted action, the Asian community will continue to lack confidence in law enforcement and the justice system. The report urges police departments to increase resources, hire more officers who speak Asian languages, train first responders more about hate crimes and prosecute hate crimes more aggressively.
