Holding up flyers with the words “Stop Asian Hate,” dozens of people came to show their support during a #StopAsianHate rally, hosted by the city of Irvine on Friday, March 19.

Held at Irvine City Hall, the rally focused on unifying the community, while addressing the actions taken by Irvine specifically to reduce racially motivated hate crimes and discrimination from happening in the city.

Prior to speaking at Friday’s rally, Irvine Vice Mayor Tammy Kim, who is also Managing Director of the Irvine-based Korean American Center, told Irvine Weekly that the pandemic created a lot of negative situations for many individuals in her community, and beyond.

“We are hearing from community members about the pain and trauma that they are going through, as Asian Americans. We have 50 percent Asian American residents here in the city of Irvine and many are experiencing a lot of grief, sadness,” Kim explained. “We want to talk about what we as a city are doing to combat hate and racism within our city.”

Kim explained that she introduced an agenda item in January, with the support of Council Member Anthony Kuo. The item modified the method in which the Irvine Police Department reported hate crimes.

“I introduced in January an agenda item, along with Council member Kuo, to have the city do its own tracking and monitoring of hate incidents in the city of Irvine,” she said. “Right now, the IPD only reports on hate crimes – not hate incidents. So what we’re doing is actually establishing a portal so community members can report how they’re experiencing hate.”

In terms of increasing hate crimes and incidents happening in Orange County, Mary Anne Foo, Founder and Executive Director of the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance (OCAPICA), said she has definitely seen an increase of race-related crimes happening in the Asian community her organization serves.

“We’re also here today because of so much increase around hate against Asian Americans and scapegoating and blaming of Asians and Asian Americans for COVID-19, and we’re here to say to, ‘Stop it,’” Foo explained in an interview with Irvine Weekly at the rally. “With the deaths and the murders in Atlanta, with all the deaths and murders of elderly, we’re trying to work with cities and governments around the county, about what to do, how to enforce more hate laws – what can we do for the future to ensure that this doesn’t happen?”

During the rally, Irvine Police Chief Mike Hamel announced Irvine Police Department’s dedication to reducing these crimes altogether.

“Under the leadership of our City Council, we’ve been looking for alternate reporting methods for hate crimes and hate incidents, because we know that some members of our community are hesitant to call members of the police directly,” he said.

The Irvine Police Department has now launched a submission-based hate crime reporting database, that can be utilized to report hate crimes or incidents in the community.

“Today I’m pleased to announce the launch of an online hate crime, hate incident, reporting portal. The portal is now live,” he explained. “I would like to emphasize that the online portal is not designed to replace the response of the professional police officer when needed or requested.”

Foo added that from her perspective, there are historical precedents for the type of rhetoric and scapegoating plaguing the Asian community right now, but she has trouble recalling when it has ever been this frequent in terms of “concentration and time period.”

“I think throughout history there’s been so many hate incidents and crimes against Asian Americans, but it hasn’t been as much as it’s happening. I remember growing up in the ’80s and there was so much hate against the Japanese because of the auto industry, but now we’re seeing it happen every day,” she said. “Part of it is when policy makers ‘blame us’ for COVID-19. That really impacts us, and it causes detriment to our lives.”

Jennifer Wang, who has lived in Irvine for more than 30 years, spoke during Friday’s rally about her experience watching Irvine evolve into the city it is today. Wang, who is now the Chief Operating Officer of the Santa Ana-based Asian American Senior Citizens Service Center, said she has noticed Irvine become the first to offer residents services before other cities during the pandemic.

“They were the first that I saw, providing the masks, providing the tests – there’s so many tools that you need right now, that I think the city is really taking the steps to secure [these tools] for residents,” she said. “People need to understand that there is trauma, and now during COVID-19 there is that invisible threat – whether it’s the virus or maybe they’re a victim of a hate crime – and that’s really living in fear.”

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