CGTN America
Anti-Chinese graffiti found at five locations in New York City borough of Brooklyn PHOTO/ FOX5NY
Police in New York are investigating a series of anti-Chinese graffiti incidents in the city. Racist graffiti has been discovered at five locations in a business district of New York’s Brooklyn borough.
The spray-painted block capital messages include “Chinese [expletive] stink like fish.”
They appeared in the area of Bensonshurst that has a large, well-established Asian American population, and is known locally as the Chinatown of Brooklyn.
The NYPD has released surveillance camera footage of a male suspect wearing a shirt, shorts, sneakers and a cap, spray painting the messages on a supermarket wall.
PLEASE SHARE: this man is wanted by NYPD Hate Crime Task Force for making anti Chinese graffiti at multiple locations in Brooklyn. If you have any information please call the @NYPDDetectives pic.twitter.com/d8LEoESOqd
— New York City Alerts (@NYCityAlerts) August 7, 2018
Surveillance video captures Chinese graffiti suspect. PHOTO/ @NYCityAlerts
Representatives from different community groups in New York have widely condemned the anti-Chinese messages.
At a news conference on Monday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said, “This is attempting to degrade communities and create a level of terror in our communities, and it’s not accepted.”
People from Chinese-American communities attended the event, many with signs that read “Stop the hate” and “Hate doesn’t belong here.”
Adams praised the long tradition of Chinese communities in New York. “We stand for a united front to ensure that we will continue to build bridges with each other,” he said.
The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force is now investigating at least three of the incidents. It classifies such graffiti as “possible biased” incidents.
However, Adams is urging the NYPD to re-classify these attacks as a ‘hate crime’.
Adams is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. “This was a pre-meditated action to identify a group and treat them in a disparaging, negative fashion,” he said. “That to me says hate crime all over it, and that crime needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
BY CGTN’S Nick Harper
Follow Nick Harper on Twitter @NickHarperFSN
