QBP RICHARDS, COMMUNITY LEADERS TO UNITE AGAINST SICKENING RISE IN HATE CRIMES

Monday, February 22 at 9:30AM Outside Queens Borough Hall

(February 19, 2021 at 11:05am)

QUEENS, NY – Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, elected officials and community-based organizations from across The World’s Borough will gather on the steps of Queens Borough Hall on Monday, February 22 at 9:30AM to denounce the troubling rise in bias crimes and declare, as one united borough, that hate has no home in Queens.

The February 22 press conference comes in the immediate wake of multiple troubling incidents in recent weeks in New York City and across the nation, especially those involving Asian Americans around the start of the Lunar New Year holiday. According to The City, 27 bias attacks against Asian Americans were reported in New York City in 2020 — a dramatic rise from the previous year and 10 percent of all hate crimes investigated by the NYPD. The startling increase in anti-Asian bias incidents, coinciding with the outbreak of COVID-19, resulted in the formation of the NYPD Asian Hate Crime Task Force last year.

In Queens alone over the past week, a woman was shoved to the ground and injured in Flushing by a man allegedly shouting racial slurs, a woman in Astoria was accosted by a man allegedly using anti-Asian rhetoric and a swastika was discovered painted on a sign outside the Rego Park Jewish Center.  

“These disgusting acts of anti-Asian and anti-Semitic hate were reprehensible, and those who committed them should be held accountable to the fullest extent possible,” said Borough President RICHARDS. “Racism and anti-Semitism are never acceptable, especially here in The World’s Borough, where we take pride in our great diversity. The NYPD Hate Crime Task Force, the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes and the New York City Commission on Human Rights must continue to undertake a coordinated approach on these issues, and my office is ready to lean in and partner with our colleagues in City government on this effort. Queens residents should also be vigilant in reporting and speaking out against such acts of hatred and in showing support for our neighbors when they are attacked.  None of us should ever be made to feel unsafe or unwelcome in our own communities.”

Members of the media planning on attending the February 22 press conference are asked to RSVP via email at [email protected] or via phone at 718-286-2640.

WHAT:         Borough President Richards, Community Leaders to Unite Against Sickening Rise in Hate Crimes

WHEN:         Monday, February 22, 2021 at 9:30 AM

WHERE:       Queens Borough Hall, 120-55 Queens Boulevard in Kew Gardens

WHO: 도노반 리차즈, 퀸즈 버러 대통령

                        Elected officials and community leaders

트위터와 페이스 북과 인스 타 그램에 @QueensBPRichards @QnsBPRichards 통해 퀸즈 자치구 대통령의 사무실을 따라

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