Sacramento leaders condemn anti-Asian violence and call for more protection, data
Sacramento community leaders and state officials gathered Thursday morning to denounce anti-Asian violence and discrimination and call for culturally sensitive law enforcement protection and hate crime data collection.
Gathered inside Asian Resources Inc., state leaders and community organizers including Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, state Sen. Richard Pan, La Familia Counseling Center Executive Director Rachel Rios and City Councilman Eric Guerra pointed to the long history of anti-Asian racism in the U.S. as well as the recent rise in attacks. Leaders emphasized the importance of elevating Asian voices and getting more funding for local API community organizations.
“As an API daughter of refugee parents, we came here escaping war, escaping violence,” said ARI executive director Stephanie Nguyen. “We today call Sacramento home, and home is where we need to feel safe. Can you imagine the fear I felt the next day coming in to work? ... We are not going to let fear win this.”
Earlier this month, the Sacramento City Council passed a resolution outlining community-led strategies to protect AAPI residents. Hate-motivated crimes rose in Sacramento last year according to police data, including anti-Asian hate incidents, with residents reporting being spit on and having their tires slashed. Just last month, a mutilated cat was left outside a Chinese-owned butcher shop in south Sacramento.
“We know … there is a reluctance to report these crimes,” said Sacramento Police Chief Daniel Hahn. “We really encourage people to call the police immediately if they suspect any hate or bias related incidents and let us our officers look at it.”
“We have not had any of these incidents at massage parlors within our city, and don’t have any information to lead us to believe there will be,” Hahn continued. “But we know there is a lot of fear and unease due to what occurred in Atlanta and what has been occurring in our AAPI community recently.”
Police have hosted sessions outside local businesses in recent weeks to spread information to the AAPI community on how to report hate crimes and answer questions. The next events will take place on Friday outside the HOPE Center on Eleanor Ave from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and outside Welco Supermarket on March 27.
Through the Safe Place Program, residents can also go to local businesses such as ARI to report hate crimes, and Hahn urged any businesses who want to participate to contact the police department.
During the news conference, Assemblyman Jim Cooper also called for the passage of AB 266, a bill Cooper introduced last year to define felony hate crimes in California as violent felonies.
Time and time again, community leaders repeated the phrase, “enough is enough.”
“I’m frankly tired of all of these press conferences,” Steinberg said. “We need nothing less than a revolutionary commitment to stamping out white supremacy.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 12:51 PM.