Video Shows Asian Woman Punched in Face by Man of Color in New York’s Chinatown

A video taken in New York City’s Chinatown neighborhood shows a dark-skinned man attacking an Asian woman within view of others.

New York State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, who shared the video of the attack on her Twitter account Monday, said a constituent sent her the video.

The video shows two men eating in an outdoor sidewalk shelter. As an Asian woman walks on the sidewalk, a man in an orange hoodie seems to punch her in the face. The woman’s head whips backward and her cap falls off her head as she grabs her face and collapses on the ground.

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A man punched a 55-year-old Asian American woman in the face as she was walking in New York’s Chinatown.

The 48-year-old suspect has been arrested and charged for hate crimes, according to the NYPD pic.twitter.com/o1li5WhYRG

— TRT World (@trtworld) June 1, 2021

Niou wrote that the suspected attacker had been arrested. {snip}

In New York City alone, police have investigated 42 attacks on Asian-Americans in the first quarter of 2021, a 223 percent increase over the 13 attacks reported during the first quarter of 2020, according to a report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.

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The NYPD created an Asian Hate Crime Task Force to address rising violence late last year. {snip}

However, in September 2020, over 25 community groups signed an open letter opposing the task force’s creation. The signers cited the negative effects that over-policing and increased incarceration can have on people of color.