And it’s going to have to prepare itself to lock up a lot of black people (and maybe a few Hispanics).
The White House on Tuesday announced “additional actions” that President Joe Biden would direct to “respond to Anti-Asian violence, xenophobia and bias.”
If you haven’t heard, there’s some evidence of rashes of anti-Asian sentiment breaking out across the country. Well, mostly in New York and parts of California, where those rashes have existed for decades, but we’re told by some advocacy groups and some local police departments that it’s gotten worse.
The New York Times reported that part of Biden’s initiative will be “prioritizing prosecution of those who commit hate crimes” against people of Asian descent.
I guess that’s a good thing, but what happens when prioritizing the prosecution of anti-Asian hate crimes disproportionately affects the black community?
It will. Anyone tracking the sporadic incidents of violence against people of Asian descent lately will have noticed a pattern. The attackers are almost exclusively black men.
The gruesome beating and choking of an Asian man until he was unconscious on a New York subway this week? Black perpetrator.
The shocking video this week of an elderly Asian woman kicked to the ground and repeatedly stomped on as she headed to church? Black perpetrator.
The man arrested last week in Seattle and accused of yelling, “F— you, you Asian b—-” at a woman? Black.
The man who brutally beat an Asian man earlier this month on the New York subway while shouting, “You Asian motherf—–“? White supremacist. Just kidding. Another black man.
Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year-old San Francisco man of Thai descent, was on his routine morning walk in late January when a man in a hoodie charged in his direction and shoved him to the ground. Ratanapakdee was hospitalized and died two days later. Police identified and charged 19-year-old Antoine Watson for the crime. Watson, who pleaded not guilty, is black.
Another clip from late January showed the assault of a 91-year-old man in the Chinatown section of Oakland, California. A man walked up behind him in a hoodie and used both arms to push the unsuspecting victim to the ground before the assailant walked away. Police identified 28-year-old Yahya Muslim as the perpetrator and linked him to similar attacks of two other elderly people from the same day. Muslim is black.
Denny Kim, 27, of Los Angeles, was randomly attacked last month by two men who he said ambushed him in the street. While beating him up and leaving him with a black eye, the men called him “Chinese virus” and said, “all f—ing Asians gotta die.” Police described the suspects as Hispanic.
Also last month, an Asian man in New York was taken to the hospital in critical condition after being stabbed in the back with a butcher knife. The perpetrator later turned himself into the police. I could only find a photo of him with a face mask, making it difficult to discern his race. I do know that his name is Salman Muflihi, probably not the sort of name you would expect an angry white man to have.
True, there was the recent violent rampage in Atlanta wherein a young white man killed Asians and a couple of white people at some Asian-run spas, which he said he did because of some weird sex addiction. Lightning strikes every now and then.