Group launches website to report hate crimes, bias

The Asian American Federation (AAF) has launched a website for people to report hate crimes and bias incidents against Asian Americans amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The website is "AAF's response against the horrifying increase in xenophobia against Asian Americans," said JoAnn Yoo, executive director of the AAF, in a statement Monday.

Established in 1989, the New York-based AAF is a pan-Asian nonprofit organization representing a network of community service agencies in the Northeast. Those agencies work in the fields of health and human services, education, economic development, civic participation and social justice.

Citing a recent FBI report, the AAF warned of a potential increase in hate crimes.

"The FBI assesses hate crime incidents against Asian Americans likely will surge across the United States, due to the spread of coronavirus disease … endangering Asian American communities," said the report, which was distributed to law enforcement agencies around the country.

The report says the FBI made this assessment based on the assumption that a portion of the US public will associate COVID-19 with China and Asian American populations.

Numerous racist incidents against Asians have occurred during the COVID-19 outbreak as fear-mongering about the virus has sparked random assaults.

In New York City, discrimination had been rising even before the city's first confirmed case of the virus, according to some Chinese community leaders.

The problem is compounded by the fact, Yoo said, that 1 in 4 Asian Americans in New York City lives in poverty, and 50 percent have low proficiency in English. For these reasons, some in the Asian American community might hesitate to come forward if attacked.

"There are people in our community who don't speak the language, who don't have the access that I have and who are afraid for many, many reasons to talk to the police, talk to law enforcement to complain about what is happening," Yoo said.

The website has a form that will allow people to report the crime directly without having to go to law enforcement and allows the AAF to track hate and bias crimes, as well as physical threats and verbal assaults.

All personal information will be kept confidential unless AAF explicitly receives permission from the individual to share a report.

The website is focused on hate crimes and bias incidents in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The website will be launched in English, with Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Tagalog, Nepalese and Vietnamese forms to be added soon.

Individuals who have experienced a bias attack or witnessed one can report it at aafederation.wordpress.com/aaf-anti-asian-bias-reporting-form.

In March, the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON) and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) in California jointly launched a reporting center to allow community members to report incidents of hate that they have experienced.