SEAL BEACH (CBSLA) – After a deadly shooting at an Atlanta spa that killed eight people, including six Asians, concerns are growing about the safety of people in the Asian Pacific community, which is facing a wave of hate.
Claudia Choi is devastated and angry.
Attacking a grieving widow is disgusting.
On Friday, his family buried their beloved father Byung, and on the same day they received a postmarked hate letter.
They were posted on the day of my father’s funeral. How can you be cruel? She should be ashamed.
Read the letter: With Byun gone, there is one less Asian to support in the entertainment world….. Be careful. Pack your bags and go back to your country where you belong.
APPROPRIATE: LASD is investigating a hate incident at the Stop Asian hate at Diamond Bar rally.
This is a personal attack, but Cho thinks it is also part of the growing anti-Asian sentiment since the pandemic began.
Stop AAPI Hate recorded 360 hate incidents in one year in Los Angeles and 3,800 in 2020 nationwide, a 149% increase from the previous year.
A racist anti-Asian letter was sent to an Asian woman and her family in Seal Beach. (Source: CBSLA)
What happened to Byung is another incident, and what bothers Choi even more is that the letter apparently came from his parents’ house, Leisure World, in Seal Beach.
Racism, hatred and cruelty should be condemned at all times, Choi said. It’s not just when someone gets beaten up, although that’s terrible, or when women are murdered, that’s terrible, but when your neighbor says something like you should go home or makes a joke about Asians, you have to say to yourself and tell yourself it’s not right, because these little things that we overlook lead to big things.
Across town in Santa Monica, in his popular DK Donut shop, Chuong Lee hears stories like this and lives in fear.
A friend of mine called me and said: Hey, sis, where you going? I said I was going shopping, he said I shouldn’t go because if they see Asians, you can get in trouble, Lee said.
Her daughter Mailey wrote about the fear her mother and other older Asians experience today, and has been inundated with offers to take her mother shopping to keep her and the store safe.
Choi reported the letter to the police, who are investigating, and to the FBI since it arrived in the mail.
Handwriting and fingerprint tests, as well as DNA testing, will be used to try to identify the letter’s sender, police said.
Hate against members of our community is abhorrent and will not be tolerated, said Seal Beach Police Chief Philip Gonshak. Across the country, violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders is on the rise. We’re not going to let that happen in Seal Beach. Our detectives are working diligently to follow up on any leads we receive.
Leisure World said in a statement that it condemns the actions of the man who wrote the racist letter.
This cruel and blatant act of hateful rhetoric threatens our core values of racial equality and social justice ….. We strongly condemn such acts and will do everything in our power to find and prosecute those involved.
Leisure World has also informed the family that the board agrees to take steps to remove the person from the community if the writer is a resident.
Anyone who witnesses a hate crime is encouraged to report it to local authorities. Any information regarding this particular crime can be reported to Detective John Ainley at 562-799-4100 St. John’s. 1113.
