Don't trust the numbers: Report says anti-Asian bias incidents in New York City are off

When it comes to anti-Asian bias incidents in New York City and across the nation, don’t trust the numbers. The reality is likely worse.

That’s the conclusion of a new U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report delivered to President Biden. A section devoted to New York City points out what local activists have long maintained – that the problem is underreported.

“Some Asian New Yorkers did not report incidents to the police due to a lack of trust that their concerns would be properly addressed because of the lack of hate crime charges, prosecutions, and convictions following these incidents,” read the report.

It urges police departments to hire more officers who speak Asian languages, more training on hate crimes law for first responders, and for more vigorous prosecution of hate crimes.

The report cites an inquiry by the Asian American Bar Association of New York, which analyzed 233 anti-Asian hate crimes in New York City from the first three quarters of 2021 and found that only seven of the incidents “led to hate crime convictions.”

“Asian Americans are the nation's fastest growing racial minority group in the country,” Glenn Magpantay, a New York-based member of the commission and Asian American himself, told Gothamist. “We are the largest segment of immigrants coming to the United States. And yet we are still overlooked, forgotten and marginalized.”

In the early days of the pandemic, the number of anti-Asian hate crimes in New York soared: there were 27 incidents in 2020, according to the NYPD, and 131 in 2021. In 2019, by contrast, there had been just one instance of anti-Asian hate, the report notes.

A history of bias

Titled “The Federal Response to Anti-Asian Racism in the United States,” the 510-page report attempts to summarize the extent of anti-Asian hostilities across the country as well as ways in which federal, state and local law enforcement and government agencies should respond.

Without concerted action, the report concludes, the Asian American community will continue to lack confidence in the system.

Last year, following a string of attacks on Asian New Yorkers, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said his office's Hate Crimes Unit was prosecuting more hate crimes involving anti-Asian incidents than it has since the task force was formed more than a decade ago. Bragg was sworn in Jan. 1, 2022.

“New Yorkers of all backgrounds deserve to be safe," Bragg said in a statement to Gothamist on the new report. He noted that his office last year successfully lobbied for $1.7 million in additional funding for its Hate Crimes Unit.

"In addition to having now specially trained prosecutors, the unit has greatly expanded its community outreach, strengthened victim support services and introduced specialized training," Bragg said. "Our goal with this holistic approach is to address the root causes of bias-driven crimes and build trust with impacted communities and victims.”

There was no immediate comment on the findings from the NYPD.

Need for more training

Magpantay said the last time the commission released a study focused on Asian Americans was more than three decades ago, with its 1992 report, “Civil Rights Issues Facing Asian Americans in the 1990s.” The commission member said one of the problems facing Asian Americans who want to report hate crimes is the lack of training among first responders.

“People don’t understand what a hate crime is, what the law holds, [and] the legal standards involved,” said Magpantay. “And I’m not just talking about community groups. I’m talking about law enforcement.”

The report details a long timeline of anti-Asian bigotry in this country.

Well before President Trump and his invoked the terms “China Virus” and “Kung Flu” in the national discourse – racialized terms the report blames for immediate spikes in anti-Asian violence during the pandemic – the Asian community was painted as dangerous.

This included a period in the late 19th and early 20th century with the emergence of the “yellow peril” discourse, which the report said promoted the idea of Asian people as “dishonest, diseased invaders.”

“The report makes very clear that what we have experienced the past three years has been going on for the past 300 years,” said Magpantay.

In August 2020, the report notes, the NYPD formed an Asian Hate Crime Task Force following a spike in anti-Asian attacks. The team included 25 Asian American officers who spoke a second language.

“The Task Force hoped that by having a team dedicated to building rapport with the community, victims would be less reluctant to speak with police during investigations,” according to the report. But it concludes more resources are needed to combat the problem.

This article was updated to include comment from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.