#Oakland #Asian #Crime #Discrimination
Video captured the moment an Asian man was pistol-whipped and robbed in broad daylight by two brazen criminals in Oakland.
The attack unfolded on Thursday in the city's Chinatown neighborhood. Surveillance video showed the thieves knocking the elderly man to the ground before turning their attention to a good Samaritan who sought to intervene - striking him with the pistol as well.
The man, has not been publicly named, was standing on a street corner when he was approached by the thieves, one of whom was armed with a gun.
They then shoved the victim to the ground while trying to take his watch, as the man's walking cane can be seen falling right next to him.
The bystander, who has also not been named publicly, was passing on his bicycle when he jumped in to help, only to be pistol-whipped himself before falling to the ground as the other robber continues to struggle for the downed Asian man's belongings.
The extent of their injuries was not immediately made available.
On Friday another attack occurred in the same location when an elderly Asian woman was beaten and robbed.
The victim in the second attack, Aiwon Woo, told KPIX in Cantonese that the robbers struck her and her daughter in the head until they both fell to the ground, where the robbers took then proceeded to steal Woo's purse.
Crime throughout the adjacent cities of San Francisco and Oakland has remained an ongoing issue over the years, with San Francisco seeing gun crimes increase in 2021, more than double from last year.
'We are trying to get a handle on this issue,' San Francisco Police Chief William 'Bill' Scott said of the city’s gun violence according to KRON 4.
'We are addressing this with ATF and federal partners, hoping to continue confiscating these guns so they won’t be in the hands of people driving gun violence,' he added.
Meanwhile, authorities have seen a 'troubling' increase in burglaries compared to last year, however post-lockdown numbers have since slightly declined. Auto thefts and aggravated assaults have also seen small increases as of this month.
The only crimes that haven't increased thus far this year are rapes, larcenies and robberies.
The increase in crime comes as San Francisco and the nation at large continue to see a surge in hate crimes toward Asians and Asian-Americans following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.
According to recent reports by California’s attorney general released earlier this month, hate crimes against Asians in California more than doubled last year, just as the pandemic began to reach critical levels worldwide.
With only 43 anti-Asian hate crimes reported in 2019, the number of anti-Asian hate crimes spiked 107 percent in 2020, with 89 such reports filed with police.
The report also reveals that the most common kind of anti-Asian hate crime reported to authorities was violent crime, with 72 reports in 2020 compared to just 32 the year before.
In March, an elderly Asian-American woman was applauded for fighting back against her attackers in a hate crime in nearby San Francisco, receiving $1million in donations from a GoFundMe and donating all of the funds to the city to help combat racism, according to a Mail Online report.
The 76-year-old grandmother received two black eyes during that attack.
That same month, a 75-year-old Asian man died after being assaulted and robbed in Oakland.
And last month, a 94-year-old Asian woman was stabbed multiple times in an unprovoked attack in San Francisco, the Mail Online reported in June.
The unsettling trend is part of an overall 31 percent increase in hate-based crime throughout the state, the state's attorney general reports.
