A California district attorney on Monday announced a special task force to fight the recent spate of attacks on people of Asian descent, especially the elderly.
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley said at a news conference in Oakland’s Chinatown Monday that the "rapid increase in criminal acts targeted against members of the Asian community, particularly Chinese Americans, who live and work in Alameda County, is intolerable," Fox News reported.
O'Malley said the attacks stem from people who blame the coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China, on Asian people.
"It's not unique to Chinatown or to the Asian community the increase in crime we've seen across the city and across the county, but we have seen in the last several weeks and month a very specific increase in crimes committed against Asians," O'Malley said. "To still be calling it 'Chinese virus,' things like that, that fuels hate and fuels aggression and that hate and aggression results in many times – sometimes it's words – but a lot of times it's through committing assault or other types of crimes."
The Oakland Police Department said it will step up patrols in the area as Chinese New Year approaches on Friday.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed visited that city's Chinatown on Monday to talk about the growing violence, NBC News reported.
"These attacks have been caught on video, and I know not just these seniors but their family members live in fear when their grandparents or parents go out during New Year to pick up their groceries," Breed said. "We don’t tolerate this. ... We need to look at every elderly person in this city like they’re our own parents, our own grandparents."
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