Mayor candidates Kathryn Garcia, Scott Stringer and Shaun Donovan today gathered near the scene of yet another heinous Anti-Asian attack, demanding action from the de Blasio Administration.
The attack of a 55-year-old Asian-American woman being sucker-punched and knocked out occurred Monday, May 31 in front of 65 Bayard Street in Lower Manhattan’s Chinatown. It comes as hate crimes against the Asian community in the city continue to soar.
According to NYPD statistics, New York City has been victim to 239 hate crimes this year. That is a 104.3% increase from the same date last year.
“We need to make sure that we are dealing with the mental health crisis we’re seeing on our streets,” said Garcia. “I call upon the current mayor to do something about it.”
Donovan shared the same sentiment, calling on city officials to provide more funding towards both the Asian-American community and for mental health services.
“We have a mental health epidemic on our streets and in our shelters,” said Donovan. “This is a solvable problem. If we invest in supportive housing we can house those with mental health challenges.”
Stringer called Donald Trump’s tone against Asians during his tenure as president a major contributing factor to the Anti-Asian attacks.
“This is a targeted attack against a group of people who have been targeted by the highest level of government,” said Stringer. “We have to come up with a community plan.”
The latest attack comes after Mayor de Blasio last week announced the launch of Partners Against the Hate (P.A.T.H.) FORWARD initiative which provides funding to six organizations selected by the city to reduce hate crimes. The total funding for this initiative is $3 million.
Also at the press conference were State Senator Brad Hoylman, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, and District Leader Jenny Low, who is Asian herself, and called on more action to be taken.
Wayne Ho, president of the Chinese-American planning council was also on hand as was Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, who decried the notion that more police would have prevented the attack.
“It is really time to step up and cut out the platitudes and cut out the lazy leadership and lazy responses,” said Williams. “Stop with the garbage that all we need is more police because the man was arrested around the corner. So how many police do we need on every single street?”
