A man is facing 33 charges, including hate crime allegations, for vandalizing 27 businesses, KPIX reports. Twenty of those businesses were primarily Chinese-owned.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced the charges Monday. The suspect, Derik Barreto, is accused of using a slingshot, pipe, or hammer to break the window of primarily Chinese-owned businesses, KHRON 4 reports.
The DA’s office charged Barreto with 27 felony counts of vandalism, four felony counts of second-degree burglary, one misdemeanor count of possession of burglary tools and one misdemeanor count of possession of a concealed weapon.
In June, a string of vandalism cases occurred in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Businesses have struggled to remain open because of the cost of repairing the damages. Chinatown business owners believed the vandalism was racially motivated.
“We absolutely do not tolerate violence or hate in San Francisco. Chinese-owned businesses should be able to operate without fear of being racially targeted by vandalism, burglary, or harassment,” Boudin said in the release, according to KPIX. “We stand with San Francisco’s AAPI community against hate and will do everything in our power to make sure everyone is and feels safe.”
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Apparently recall pressure does work.