Asian-American woman, 76, beats up racist attacker
Incident throws spotlight on a spike in violence against Asian-Americans in the US since 2019
SAN FRANCISCO: A 75-year-old Asian-American woman was walking along a San Francisco street on Wednesday when a man attacked her. But the racist Caucasian man did not expect what came next.
Madam Xiao Zhen Xie found a stick nearby and took him on.
Witnesses told CBS San Francisco they saw the woman pummelling her assailant. In fact, she hammered him with such venom, it was her attacker who was taken to hospital.
A video of the incident shows the man, face bloodied, handcuffed to a stretcher.
Madam Xiao berates him and waves what looks to be a wooden board at him as he is being taken away.
She says: "You bum, why did you hit me?"
CBS San Francisco sports director Dennis O'Donnell, who was at the scene, said: "From what I could see, she wanted more of the guy on the stretcher and the police were holding her back."
Meanwhile, in Atlanta, a 21-year-old suspect described as a sex addict was charged on Wednesday with murdering eight people in spas in triple attacks that have deeply shaken the Asian-American community.
The police said Robert Aaron Long has denied a racist motive to Tuesday's attacks - six of the victims were women of Asian origin - but that they had yet to determine the shooter's reason for opening fire, AFP reported.
"The suspect did take responsibility for the shootings," Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Office said.
Long, who is white, "does claim it was not racially motivated", Capt Baker added, but stressed it was still early in the investigation.
The suspect "apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction", Capt Baker said.
Long told the police he launched the attacks as a form of vengeance against "a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate", AFP reported.
"Racially motivated violence must be called out for exactly what it is," Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland - who is half-Korean - said on Wednesday. "We must stop making excuses or rebranding it as economic anxiety or sexual addiction."
SPOTLIGHT
The attacks thrust the spotlight onto a spike in violence targeting Asian Americans - fuelled during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some activists believe the attacks have been incited by talk of the "Chinese virus" - words first spoken by former president Donald Trump.
A report by the Centre for the Study of Hate and Extremism this month showed hate crimes against Asian Americans in 16 major US cities rose by 149 per cent from 2019 to last year, a period when overall hate crimes dropped 7 per cent, Reuters reported.
US President Joe Biden said on Twitter on Wednesday: "We don't yet know the motive, but what we do know is the Asian-American community is feeling enormous pain tonight.
"The recent attacks against the community are un-American. They must stop."
Mr Sam Park, a local representative of the Asian-American community, told AFP in Atlanta: "We have lost so many lives this past year... It shocks the conscience," he said.
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