QBP RICHARDS TO HOST “WE BELONG HERE: QUEENS RISES AGAINST HATE” MARCH IN FLUSHING

Sunday, May 2 at 12:30PM

(April 30, 2021 at 10:45am)

QUEENS, NY – Joined by community leaders and residents from across The World’s Borough, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr., joined by special guests U.S. Rep. Grace Meng and New York State Attorney General Letitia James, will proudly host an anti-hate march entitled “We Belong Here: Queens Rises Against Hate” on Sunday, May  2 at 12:30PM in Flushing, in a show of solidarity with New York City’s Asian American community — a community that in New York and across the nation has been the unjust target of a shameful onslaught of racist hate for more than a year.

The May 2 event will begin with a brief gathering and speeches outside Flushing Town Hall at 137-35 Northern Boulevard, from which the march will step off. The march will then proceed east on Northern Boulevard, south on Union Street, west on Sanford Avenue, north on Main Street and east on Northern Boulevard — concluding back at Flushing Town Hall. The route will include marching past the bakery where a woman of Asian descent was injured when she was viciously shoved to the ground on the sidewalk.

The march will be held following some 3,800 reported anti-Asian hate incidents nationwide over a year during the COVID-19 crisis. It will also follow attacks in New York and last month’s mass shooting in the Atlanta area in which a gunman killed eight individuals, including six women of Asian descent. In response to this hideous act of domestic terrorism, Borough President Richards hosted a candlelight vigil on the steps of Borough Hall on March 29 — attended by Rep. Meng and other leaders — to honor the victims of the massacre, as well as all incidents of anti-Asian hate.

Earlier that day, an Asian American senior was brutally beaten on 43rd Street in Manhattan by a since-arrested suspect, leaving her with serious injuries. The attack, captured on video, only underscores the necessity to immediately stop Asian hate in its tracks. According to the NYPD, there were an astonishing 31 reported hate crimes committed against Asian Americans during the first three months of 2021 — compared to none during the same period in 2020 — accounting for 36 percent of all reported hate crimes in New York City.

Members of the media who plan on attending the May 2 march are asked to RSVP via email at [email protected] or via phone at 718-286-2640.

WHAT:         We Belong Here: Queens Rises Against Hate March

WHEN:         Sunday, May 2, 2021 at 12:30PM

WHERE:       Step-Off: Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd. in Flushing

KI MOUN: DONOVAN RICHARDS, Ren prezidan borough

                        U.S. REP. GRACE MENG

                        NEW YORK STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL LETITIA JAMES

                        Community leaders and residents

Swiv biwo a nan Prezidan an Queens Borough via @QnsBPRichards sou Twitter ak @QueensBPRichards sou Facebook ak Instagram

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