Photo by Shirley Ng
By Shirley Ng & Louis Chan, AsAmNews Staff Writers
New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang unveiled a three-step plan to seriously address anti-Asian hate on Friday.
Yang announced his plan after visiting with workers at Xi’an Famous Foods in Chinatown, where he says numerous workers have been victims of hate crimes.
Yang’s plan calls for fully funding the city’s Asian Hate Crime Task force, which is now made up of 25 officers who volunteer to be on the Task Force.
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“It should not be a volunteer force,” Yang told reporters outside Xi’an Famous Foods. “I would treat it as hate crimes which in my mind should be treated as hate crimes. There were a number of incidents early in the pandemic which were not treated as that.”
He also vowed to reach out to communities that don’t have a positive relationship with the city officials and law enforcement in the hopes of encouraging residents to report hate crimes which he says are severely underreported.
“One employee told me the heartbreaking story about how he was assaulted,” said Yang. “The person followed him out of the subway and punched him in the face after he got to the street level. He was injured and bruised on his jaw. He was afraid to come to work for several days and then, even afterwards now, he’s afraid to ride the subway.”
He said the final step would be to treat these crimes seriously
Yang also spent time with the owner of Xi’an Famous Foods, Jason Wang, who told him he used to operate 14 locations prior to the pandemic. Now, he only has eight. Although he’s currently allowed to serve customers indoors at a maximum of 35 percent capacity, he elected not to due to the extra staffing costs that would require.
Yang says his experience as a successful businessman can get the city on track.
“We have to try to get this city back on its feet as quickly as possible in terms of widespread vaccination of everyone who needs it and then have a means of verifying people are vaccinated so we can feel safe in meeting in office buildings, restaurants, bars and theaters,” he said.
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