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Crimes Against Koreans And Chinese In Flushing Increasing
From JoongAng
Jan 17, 2003
By Ahn, JoonYong
Racially-motivated crimes have continued to occur to Asians in
Flushing, Queens. These crimes have mostly affected Koreans or Chinese,
who have become victims of crime, ranging from curse words to serious
violence.
On January 14th in Flushing, a 30-year-old Korean woman
had a car crash with a male driver, who humiliated her by saying,
Go back to your country! One Korean man in his fifties, who is the
manager of a store in Manhattan, is going to sue the landlord because
the building owner recently raised his rent and no one elses
in the building without proper reason.
It has been said that some students who confuse South Korea with
North Korea made fun of Korean students, as the potential nuclear
crisis with North Korea is a major issue in the media these days.
On January 3rd, four white people cursed and assaulted
a Chinese woman, who was having dinner with her friends in a Bayside
restaurant. The New York Police Department is in the process of
investigating this case.
Before this happened, on December 25th, 2002, some insulted
Koreans scrawling curses on several walls at the Grace Korean Presbyterian
Church in Bayside, Queens. According to the church officials, it
was not the first time that students threw stones at the church.
Similar incidents have occurred at other Korean churches as well.
It is necessary that the whole Asian community should come up with
some kind of common solution regarding recently increasing racial-motivated
crimes, said Kim, Ki-ho, a chief of the Korean American Community
Empowerment Council.
As the Asian population increases in Queens, so does racial-motivated
crime, targeting especially Chinese or Korean people, said Terrence
Park, a chief of the Human Rights Department at Korean Association
of New York. Victims should report to the police department immediately
and try to get help from local civil right groups and politicians.
Now that hate crimes can be serious crimes, make sure to report
them to the police department so that the police can recognize their
seriousness and deal with them actively, said Kim, Ki-su, a police
officer at the 109th precinct.
Translated from Korean by JooYeon Lee
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