QBP RICHARDS, COMMUNITY LEADERS TO HOLD CANDELIGHT VIGIL FOR ATLANTA SHOOTING VICTIMS AND SURVIVORS OF ANTI-ASIAN HATE VIOLENCE
Sunday, March 28 at 7:00PM Outside Queens Borough Hall
(March 26, 2021 at 11:30am)
QUEENS, NY – Queens Borough President Donovan Richards Jr., elected officials and community leaders from across The World’s Borough will gather on the steps of Queens Borough Hall on Sunday, March 28 at 7:00PM for a candlelight vigil to honor the memories of the eight individuals who lost their lives — including six women of Asian descent — in last week’s Atlanta-area mass shootings.
“Daoyou Feng. Delaina Ashley Yaun. Hyun Jung Grant. Paul Andre Michels. Soon Chung Park. Suncha Kim. Xiaojie Tan. Yong Ae Yue. On Sunday, we will say your names, and we will keep saying them until we eradicate this pandemic of prejudice afflicting our society,” said Borough President RICHARDS. “Stop Asian Hate is more than just a slogan — it’s our duty. Keeping our families safe and communities welcoming means rising up as One Queens to declare that hate of any kind has no home in The World’s Borough or anywhere else.”
The vigil, bringing together Queens residents of all races, ethnicities, genders and faiths, will serve as a solemn pledge of solidarity with our borough’s Asian American families, as well as all Asian Americans — a community that has endured an unjust, nationwide torrent of racist rhetoric and violence over the past year, for no other reason than their ethnicity.
According to NYPD data, there have been four reported hate crimes committed against Asian Americans through February 2021, compared to none across the first two months of 2020. But just this month alone, multiple alleged bias incidents targeting Asian Americans have been reported across the five boroughs.
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.
The vigil comes a little more than one month after Borough President Richards hosted a February 22 press conference alongside community leaders, faith leaders, law enforcement and elected officials to denounce both anti-Asian and anti-Semitic bias incidents that month, calling the rise in hate “an affront to everything we represent.”
Members of the media planning on attending the March 28 vigil are asked to RSVP via email at [email protected] or via phone at 718-286-2640.
WHAT: Candlelight Vigil to Honor Atlanta Mass Shooting Victims
WHEN: Sunday, March 28, 2021 at 7:00 PM
WHERE: Queens Borough Hall, 120-55 Queens Boulevard in Kew Gardens
WHO: DONOVAN RICHARDS, Queens Borough President
Elected officials and community leaders
Follow the Office of the Queens Borough President via @QnsBPRichards on Twitter and @QueensBPRichards on Facebook and Instagram
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