In the video, the suspect is seen brandishing what appears to be pepper-spray. The NYPD said she pepper-sprayed four women during the altercation. The women refused medical attention, according to a news release from police.
Another video not released by the NYPD showed an unidentified Asian man passing the group on the sidewalk, NYPD Sergeant Anwar Ishmael told CNN.
The woman allegedly turned to him and said, “You take all your b***hes back to where you came from,” Ishmael said.
Hate crimes, including those against Asians, have seen a sharp increase in recent years. The Covid-19 pandemic sparked attacks against Asians amid online and political rhetoric stigmatizing them, but this category of hate crime is often underreported.
Overall, the FBI report noted that more than 10,000 people reported to law enforcement that they were the victim of a hate crime because of their race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, religion or disability. The agency has not released data for 2021.
And despite the concerning increase in such crimes, a small percentage of reported attacks against Asians end up in convictions.
From March 2020 to December 2021, 10,905 hate incidents were reported to “Stop AAPI Hate,” a nonprofit organization that tracks self-reported incidents of anti-AAPI discrimination and hate, with 4,632 reported in 2020 and 6,273 in 2021, according to the AABANY report published in May.
CNN’s Emily Chang contributed to this report.
