Reported Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Up 878% In Vancouver: Police
The number of anti-Asian hate crimes incidents in Vancouver continues to be a cause for concern, police said this week, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues and so does racist rhetoric and misinformation.
Hate crime incidents increased by 116 per cent over the same January to September period in 2020 from 2019, according to new data presented to the Vancouver Police Board. In the same timeframe, anti-Asian hate crimes incidents increased by 878 per cent.
In the first nine months of 2019, there were nine anti-Asian hate crimes in the city, police said at an October board meeting. This year, there were 88. Earlier this year, police there said the spike in incidents became noticeable around the beginning of the pandemic.
Those numbers are “really concerning,” Deputy Chief Const. Howard Chow said at the board meeting.
“When we started to notice this back in April, we talked to our counterparts and many of them didn’t track the stats like we did. And we right away noticed that there was some concerning trends that were taking place,” Chow said.
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'Hate Incidents' Have More Than Doubled In Vancouver In 2020: Police
In April, police said they were looking for a suspect who they believe wrote “disturbing, racist remarks towards the Asian community” on large glass windows of the Chinese Cultural Centre in Chinatown. Stone lions at Millennium Gate, the entrance to Vancouver’s Chinatown, were targeted twice by racist graffiti in May.
Chow said there has been “quite a bit of work” done on these issues. He said police placed a camera at the Chinese Cultural Centre and Millennium Gate, and has been meeting with community groups and associations in Chinatown to raise awareness and...
