All-Asian undercover police force set for deployment in New York to combat hate crimes
- Racially motivated crimes against Asian-Americans rose by 149 per cent in 2020 in 16 major cities compared with 2019
- Anyone dialling emergency services can now utter a single English word in their native language – such as Mandarin – and operators will help access translators
New York plans to deploy an all-Asian undercover police team and expand community outreach in more than 200 languages to combat a rise in hate crimes against Asians, authorities said on Thursday.
“If you are going to commit a hate crime in New York City, we will find you,” New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said in unveiling the two-pronged plan to fight bias crimes.
“We are not going to tolerate anyone being targeted because of the colour of their skin, the religion they worship, their sexual preference or anything else,” Shea said.
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Asian-Americans learn self-defence as reports of hate incidents surge
Just days after a spate of assaults on Asian-Americans in New York last weekend, Shea said he was ramping up the NYPD’s undercover force with plain-clothed officers, all of them of Asian descent.
Starting this weekend, they will patrol undergrounds, grocery stores and other locations to stem anti-Asian incidents that total 26 so far this year, including 12 assaults, police said.
“The next person you target through speech or menacing activity may be a plain-clothed New York police officer – so think twice,” Shea said.
The 26 incidents so far have resulted in seven arrests, police said. Those incidents included 12 assaults so far this year, three of them last weekend, police said. By comparison, at this time last year, there were no assaults reported against Asian-Americans, police said.
