12 MARCH 18, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Stop the hate in our borough
Appa l l ed.” “Furiou s .”
Cowardly.”
These words have been
printed in our media as we try to
bring attention to the alarming increase
of anti-Asian hate crimes in
Queens and around New York City
But words alone are not enough.
We hear residents and politicians
alike condemn these crimes, but actions
speak louder than words, and
we need to take action and work to
put an end to this bigotry.
In Queens, the NYPD’s Asian Hate
Crimes Task Force is investigating a
possible hate crime incident that occurred
in Fresh Meadows last week,
when an Asian American mother
said she was spit at and called the
“Chinese virus” while holding her
2-year-old baby.
The 25-year-old woman told police
that an unidentified man spit in her
direction three times before calling
her the derogatory term on the
morning of March 9 at 186th Street
and Peck Avenue near Kissena
Corridor Park.
That incident follows a string of
several anti-Asian hate crimes in the
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While elected offi cials have held rallies condemning the recent uptake in anti-Asian hate crimes in the borough,
more must be done at the community level to truly make a diff erence. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
borough, including a particularly
heinous incident involving a 52-yearold
Asian woman, who was allegedly
shoved to the concrete ground by a
man outside a Flushing bakery.
While that man was identified, arrested
and charged with assault and
harassment, too many of these incidents
go unreported or unsolved.
And that must change.
So, how can we help put an end to
these types of crimes? By standing
together, supporting each other and
condemning these acts.
We have seen Queens officials
host rallies around the borough
denouncing the hate crimes. And
those rallies are necessary and important
— but they are not enough.
We need to see more action at the
community level, and that starts
with local community boards.
Queens community board chairs
Alexa Weitzman (CB 6), Martha Taylor
(CB 8), Betty Braton (CB 10) and
Michael Budabin (CB 11) recently
issued a joint statement taking a
stand against the rise of anti-Asian
hate crimes in New York City and
around the country since the start
of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We applaud their action as a
positive first step toward combating
hate. But we are calling on community
boards — and the communities
they serve — to do more.
Anyone who is the victim of a hate
crime should report it to authorities.
Far too often these crimes are underreported,
and if victims don’t go
to the police, they should feel comfortable
bringing it to the attention
of their local community boards or
even their neighbors, who can join
forces and help bring attention to
these incidents, or even solve a
case.
After all, who knows the people in
their neighborhoods better than the
person who lives in your building,
or who lives next door?
Only by reporting these crimes
and making them public, can we
begin to weed out the “bad eggs” and
make a difference. Saying change is
necessary doesn’t make it so; acting
on those words does.
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