06 Jan The City: 2021 Saw Another Surge of Anti-Asian Hate Crimes in Subway
The number of anti-Asian incidents reported in the subway jumped last year, NYPD data shows, accounting for more than one third of all bias crimes in the system.
Through the end of November — the latest figures provided by the Hate Crime Task Force — 30 of the 84 reported subway bias incidents targeted Asians, a 233% increase from 2020, when only nine were tallied.
The ugly encounters in the subway mirror a significant surge in hate crimes across the city since 2019, with the NYPD reporting in December that anti-Asian incidents rose by 361% from the previous year.
In the subway, police say victims have been beaten, pushed in front of oncoming trains, spit on and hit with racial slurs — and advocates say the numbers only begin to reflect the whole of the hatred aimed at Asian riders, estimating that only 10% to 30% of violent incidents are reported to law enforcement. Read more