Where racially motivated hate crimes were reported in the city in 2020 (Source: SPD Bias Crimes Dashboard)
A terrible aspect of the COVID-19 crisis seen early here in Seattle has only gotten worse during the pandemic. Bias crimes and race-based hate crime jumped in 2020 and prosecutors say the trend appears to be continuing this year.
The national issue has raised issues in International Districts around the country on policing and how best to respond to the bias crisis.
Here, Seattle Police Department records show a 93% jump in reports of racially motivated hate crimes in 2020 with 405 incidents reported through September, the most recent month available for public reporting. Overall, reported hate crimes were up 72% in the city.
In May, CHS reported on early examples of the attacks here in Seattle as biased beliefs about the COVID-19 outbreak spread and the Trump administration insisted on referring to the virus as the “Wuhan flu.”
The King County Prosecutor’s office says it charged 59 hate crime cases in 2020 — up from 39 in 2019 — and that the trend is continuing in 2021.
Meanwhile, SPD reports it has made an arrest in the latest case to cause concern in Seattle after an attack on two people in the ID last week.
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Since this rise in hate crimes tracks with the Trump administration calling this the “China virus”, does that mean that we have a good sense of who was committing these crimes, namely people who support(ed) Trump or who generally follow closely what he says?
Ebola virus, Lyme disease, German Measles, and African sleeping sickness all want to know why it’s not China Virus or Wuhan Virus.
I get we all hate Trump but who cares what we call this thing…why change our standard naming convention of using the location of the first outbreak?
I think nobody cared where the virus came from until Trump reacted to some PC comment of _not_ calling it by its origin discovery name, and then he started pejoratively calling it the China virus. I blame the PC firehose, it’s manipulative and comes across underhanded, and is directly responsible this type of insanity.
Here’s a more detailed/recent news article:
https://komonews.com/news/local/suspect-in-chinatown-international-district-attack-had-worked-as-paramedic-in-emt
FYI hate crimes and violent crimes against Asians have been happening for a long time, not just due to the pandemic. They’re not just by presumed white/conservative Trump supporters. People may not like to admit it but there’s also anti-Asian bias in black/brown etc communities as well.
To ConfusedLib:
Naming convention changes because it turns out long after that the origins of some ie. Spanish Flu are disputed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu#Potential_origins). If you want to talk from an impact perspective, I don’t remember people assaulting black/Africans or white/Germans because of Ebola or measles.
Based on what I see from my deck a little bit further down the hill, it seems like it’s people with bad substance or mental problems. Like after I wash my long hair I twist it up in a towel to dry, then I sit on my deck with the towel wrap on. I’ve been doing this daily for 15+ years and it wasn’t until Spring/Summer 2020 I got weird, unsolicited comments from disadvantaged looking men going out of their way to walk close to my deck. Comments like “Towelhead” and “Go back to where you come from,” spitting at my building, etc. You guys, I am the whitest looking lady ever, not that anyone should be saying those racist and crappy things to anyone. If all it took to trigger these creeps was my bath towel when I was on my own property minding my own business, it makes me worried for the safety of my many friends in Seattle that are Asian-American or visitors from Asia.
A suspect has been arrested for attack on Asian woman and man in Seattle International District, perhaps we’ll learn about his motives and who is influencing him.