Exclusive: NYPD hate crimes chief fears Asian attacks are 'new normal'

From the heinous hate-fueled attack in Hell's Kitchen to the man knocked out unconscious on the subway by a man hurling anti-Asian slurs, it seems like the rise in hate crimes is never ending.

Video Transcript

- There's a line in the classic movie Chinatown where the star Jack Nicholson sees a murder. And someone says, forget about it, Jake. It's Chinatown. That phrase doesn't cut it anymore.

A new generation now refusing to forget about this wave of violence against Asians. Kim-- CeFaan Kim talking to the new head of the NYPD Asian Hate Crimes Force tonight. Why is this happening? And how do we stop it?

CEFAAN KIM: From the heinous hate fueled attack in Hell's Kitchen to the man knocked out unconscious on the train by a man hurling anti-Asian slurs, it seems like the rise in attacks is never ending. But is this a spike or is it something else?

TOMMY NG: Crime against Asian in general, it's been happening for quite some time.

CEFAAN KIM: Inspector Tommy Ng is the new commanding officer of the NYPD Asian Hate Crimes Task Force. According to police, so far this year, there have been 36 anti-Asian hate crimes motivated by the victim's race. Three crimes motivated by COVID-19 with an Asian victim. 39 total. Compared to 29 through all of 2020.

Inspector Ng thinks the true number is even higher. But he says don't call it a spike. Decades ago, he responded to a robbery inside a Chinese restaurant.

TOMMY NG: We saw the victim, who was still on the phone, taking a delivery order while her head was still bleeding profusely. When we asked her about how come you don't report it, what she said was it just part of the business.

RUSSELL JEUNG: Whether there's a surge in hate crimes is unclear because hate crimes are underreported.

CEFAAN KIM: Professor Russell Jeung at San Francisco State University is the co-founder of STOP AAPI Hate, which has been tracking incidents nationwide since the start of the pandemic.

RUSSELL JEUNG: I say there's two trends, right? We've always experienced violence for those of us who live in urban areas. And so that's been consistent. And then we've had last year's trend of pandemic racism. We're now tracking coughing and spitting incidents that make up 7% of our cases. I don't think people are coughing and spitting on their fellow humans in 2019.

- Your existence matters.

CEFAAN KIM: Inspector Ng says what's really happening is more victims are now coming forward. He gets why they've been reluctant in the past. He was robbed when he was a new immigrant teenager making food deliveries, but never reported it to police.

TOMMY NG: I didn't want to report it. And secondly, I didn't speak the language.

CEFAAN KIM: Today he says there are more second generation Asian-American New Yorkers, less language barriers. And even among the immigrant population, many of them now have American born children. So when I asked if or when the wave of attacks against Asian-Americans will subside, he says this is the new normal. At police headquarters, CeFaan Kim, channel 7, Eyewitness News.

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