PADC Executive Committee Issues Anti-Hate Crime Statement
March 22, 2021
To our Asian-American friends, neighbors, colleagues, health care providers, teachers, police officers, firefighters, grocery and restaurant workers, members, sponsors, and the at large Philadelphia business, legal and judicial community and citizens:
Once again, hate and discrimination, emotions of fear, and demands for justice dominate the news and our hearts. The House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties this week acknowledged that the recent killings in Atlanta felt “like the inevitable culmination of a year in which there were nearly 3,800 reported incidents of anti-Asian hate.” The group Stop AAPI Hate received 3,795 reports of racially motivated attacks since the start of the pandemic, with approximately 70% of those incidents directed toward women. The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations reported twenty-eight reports of anti-Asian hate or bias in 2020. From incidents in Atlanta, San Francisco, Oakland and Philadelphia, our own backyard, racism and accompanying violence has rained down on Asian Americans.
We must all stand together to STOP HATE, and support the 115,000 people of Asian descent living in Philadelphia, and the entire community- approximately 20 million Asian Americans residing in the U.S. They are not “others”, they are Philadelphians. Consider supporting organizations such as Woori Center, VietLead, Asian Americans United, Asian Pacific Islander Alliance, Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, Asian Arts Initiative and Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation. UP your game as a bystander; the Los Angeles Times suggests ways in which all of us, as ordinary people, can try to help a target to safety. They list the “5 Ds”: distract, delegate, document, delay, and direct”.
We ask for a moment of silence as we extend our condolences to everyone impacted by this horrific violence. We respectfully request that the authorities declare these acts for what they are, hate crimes. Justice delayed is justice denied.
The Executive Committee of the
Philadelphia Association of Defense Counsel
For further reading:
https://www.csusb.edu/hate-and-extremism-center
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-19/how-to-help-after-racist-attacks