BEWARE...SOME DAYS ARE NOT VERY PRETTY. I GET CRABBY LIKE NORMAL PEOPLE DO. AND I DO SPEAK MY MIND.
DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE TO TRUE, REAL, EVERYDAY FEELINGS LIKE MINE.(But I think you would enjoy it)
DON'T FORGET...FREEDOM OF SPEECH !
“The Way Biden Is Hiding from the Public
Right Now is a MAJOR Red Flag” – White House Physician for Three US
Presidents Breaks His Silence on Joe Biden’s Failing Mental Health
US
President Joe Biden trips as he boards Air Force One at Joint Base
Andrews in Maryland on March 19, 2021. – President Biden travels to
Atlanta, Georgia, to tour the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, and to meet with Georgia Asian American leaders, following
the Atlanta Spa shootings. (Photo by Eric BARADAT / AFP) (Photo by ERIC
BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images)
Former White House physician for Presidents George W. Bush, Barack
Obama and Donald Trump, and current Texas Representative Ronnie Jackson posted an honest assessment on Joe Biden’s physical and mental condition today on Twitter.
Rep. Ronnie Jackson: I served as White House
physician under THREE Presidents. I’ve seen what it takes physically AND
mentally to do the job. I can tell you right now that the way Biden is
hiding from the public is a MAJOR red flag. Something’s not right!
Read the rest of the story at link at the top of this post
A transgender (biological male) was crowned Miss Silver State USA this week.
Kataluna Enriquez, a transgender person who was born a biological
male, won Miss Silver State USA, the biggest preliminary competition for
the Miss Nevada USA pageant, reported FOX 5 Las Vegas.
Hey cardi.... you call this "empowerment"? This is NOTHING but trash from someone that should teach children how to be LADIES not this trash crap.WE pitty you we do NOT admire you. Your money is all you will have......soooo sad.
Cardi B Serves Up Vulgar Performance at Grammys – Media Praises Her For “Sex-Positive” Production, “Female Empowerment” (VIDEO)
A mister no more: Mr. Potato Head goes gender neutral
JOSEPH PISANI
NEW YORK (AP) — Mr. Potato Head is no longer a mister.
Hasbro,
the company that makes the potato-shaped plastic toy, is giving the
spud a gender neutral new name: Potato Head. The change will appear on
boxes this year.
Many toymakers have been updating their classic
brands in recent years, hoping to relate to kids today and to reflect
more modern families.
“It’s a potato,” said Ali Mierzejewski,
editor in chief at toy review site The Toy Insider. “But kids like to
see themselves in the toys they are playing with.”
Barbie, for
example, has shed its blonde image and now comes in multiple skin tones
and body shapes. Thomas the Tank Engine added more girl characters. And
American Girl is now selling a boy doll.
As part of the
rebranding, Hasbro will release a new Potato Head playset that will let
kids create their own type of families, including two moms or two dads.
The Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head characters will live on in some form,
Hasbro said, but didn't provide details.
Dropping the “Mr.” from
its name could encourage other companies to not assign genders to its
toys, a trend that has already been happening, said Mierzejewski. Barbie
maker Mattel released a gender-neutral doll line in 2019. But Mr.
Potato Head is one of the biggest brands to do so.
“It’s setting this new standard," Mierzejewski said.
Mr.
Potato Head first hit the toy scene in 1952, when it didn’t even come
with a plastic potato — kids had to supply their own vegetable to poke
eyes, a nose or mustache into. Hasbro, which also makes Monopoly and My
Little Pony, bought the brand and eventually added a plastic potato.
California's coronavirus strain looks increasingly dangerous: 'The devil is already here'
Melissa Healy
Registered
nurses April McFarland, left, and Tiffany Robbins place the body of a
COVID-19 victim inside a white bag and zip it closed at Providence Holy
Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
A
coronavirus variant that probably emerged in May and surged to become
the dominant strain in California not only spreads more readily than its
predecessors but also evades antibodies generated by COVID-19 vaccines
or prior infection and is associated with severe illness and death,
researchers said.
In a study that helps explain the state’s
dramatic holiday surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths — and portends
further trouble ahead — scientists at UC San Francisco said the cluster
of mutations that characterizes the homegrown strain should mark it as a “variant of concern” on par with those from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil.
Californians, along with the rest of the country, have been bracing for an onslaught of the more transmissible strain
from the U.K. known as B.1.1.7. But they should know that a rival
strain that is probably just as worrisome has already settled in, and
will probably account for 90% of the state’s infections by the end of
next month, said Dr. Charles Chiu, an infectious diseases researcher and physician at UCSF.
“The
devil is already here,” said Chiu, who led a team of geneticists,
epidemiologists, statisticians and other scientists in a wide-ranging
analysis of the new variant, which they call B.1.427/B.1.429. “I wish it
were different. But the science is the science.”
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The
U.K. and California variants are each armed with enhanced capabilities,
and the likelihood that they could circulate in the same population
raises the specter of a return to spiking infections and deaths, Chiu
said. It also opens the door to a “nightmare scenario”: That the two
viruses will meet in a single person, swap their mutations and create an
even more dangerous strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The new
evidence that the California variant could make people sicker, and
vaccines less effective, should spur more intensive efforts to drive
down infections, Chiu said. Those should include both public health
measures, such as masking and limits on public activities, and a
campaign of rapid vaccinations, he added.
Dr. Anthony Fauci,
the nation's top infectious diseases expert, raised a further concern
in an interview with The Times. A survival-of-the-fittest contest
between the U.K. and California variants could accelerate the spread of
the strain that's best able to elude the effects of COVID-19 vaccines,
he said. The best way to prevent this, he added, is to stop the spread
of either variant by getting vaccinated, wearing masks and limiting
exposure to others.
The new analysis is currently under review by
the public health departments of San Francisco County and the state,
which collaborated in the new research. It is expected to post late this
week to MedRxiv, a website that allows new research to be shared before
its formal publication.
The new findings do not show that the
homegrown strain was the principal driver of California's dramatic
run-up in infections and deaths during the fall and early winter, Chiu
cautioned. In some counties, case rates began to surge before the new
variant had muscled into the picture; in others, both the variant and
new infections rose together.
But scientists said B.1.427/B.1.429 certainly wasn't blameless.
"It's
hard to disentangle all the different factors that contribute to
spread," including travel, holiday gatherings and restaurant dining,
said Dr. Bruce Walker,
an immunologist and founding director of the Ragon Institute in Boston.
Still, it's fair to conclude that "they all contribute to some extent,"
he added.
Over five months starting on Sept. 1, the California
strain, which is sometimes referred to as 20C/L452R, rose from complete
obscurity to account for more than 50% of all coronavirus samples that
were subjected to genetic analysis in the state. Compared with strains
that were most prominent here in early fall, the new strain seems to
have an enhanced ability to spread, Chiu said.
Exactly how much
more transmissible the California strain is remains an open question, he
added. But the evidence that it's more contagious comes from several
sources.
Samples collected from a range of counties, and using a
variety of collection methods, suggest the variant is 19% to 24% more
transmissible. But in some circumstances, its advantage was much
greater: In one nursing home outbreak, B.1.427/B.1.429 spread at a rate
that was six times higher than that of its predecessors.
Researchers
also discerned uniform patterns of the variant's expansion in counties
across the state. When infection rates rose, they typically did so in
tandem with growing evidence of the California strain’s presence.
That
probably made the new viral variant a contributor — albeit one among
many — to the surge that dogged the state through the fall and early
winter. In Northern California, at least, new infections had already
begun to rise dramatically by the time the new variant had announced its
presence, Chiu said. Across Southern California, the overlap was
closer.
The variant’s enhanced propensity for spread was also
evident in laboratory results. An analysis of viral samples from around
the state showed that compared with people infected with other strains
of SARS-CoV-2, those who were infected with the California strain had
viral loads in the nasopharynx that were twice as high.
That, in turn, made it highly likely that each person infected with the new strain would go on to infect more people.
B.1.427/B.1.429's
genome includes three mutations that affect the crucial spike protein,
which the virus uses to sneak into human cells and convert them into
factories for its own production. One of those three mutations, dubbed
L452R, affects the so-called receptor binding domain, helping the virus attach more firmly to target cells.
That adaptation has not been seen in coronavirus variants that have caused worry elsewhere.
In
a UCSF lab, scientists found that the L452R mutation alone made the
California strain more damaging as well. A coronavirus engineered to
have only that mutation was able to infect human lung tissue at least
40% more readily than were circulating variants that lacked the
mutation. Compared with those so-called wild-type strains, the
engineered virus was more than three times more infectious.
In the
lab, the California strain also revealed itself to be more resistant to
neutralizing antibodies generated in response to COVID-19 vaccines as
well as by a previous coronavirus infection.
Compared with existing variants, the reduction in protection was "moderate ... but significant," the researchers said.
When
the neutralizing antibodies went up against the homegrown strain, their
effectiveness was cut in half. By comparison, when these antibodies
encountered the coronavirus strain that's now dominant in South Africa, their effectiveness was reduced to one-sixth of their usual levels.
“I
do anticipate over time it is going to have an effect on vaccination,”
Chiu said. Though the magnitude of the effect varied from sample to
sample and was less pronounced than with the South Africa strain, “it
still is concerning,” he said.
Walker, who was not involved in the
new analysis, said that while viruses often mutate in ways that make
them stronger, such genetic changes often impose a new Achilles' heel.
For instance, a strain that spreads more easily often loses some of its
virulence.
The worrisome thing about the California variant,
Walker said, is that no apparent weakness has been introduced alongside
mutations that confer added strength.
That's a reminder that, if
given the continued opportunity to spread, SARS-CoV-2 will keep looking
for ways to thwart our effort to suppress it, he said. As long as
infections are rampant, the imperative to adapt will result in new
variants.
"If viruses don't replicate, they don't mutate," Fauci said.
Ominously, the new study also suggested the California variant could have the added impact of greater virulence.
That
observation is based on the medical charts of 324 patients hospitalized
at UCSF, a relatively small sample. Still, the researchers found that
the 21% of these patients who contracted B.1.427/B.1.429 were more
likely than their counterparts to have been admitted to the ICU, and
they were 11 times more likely to die. That finding held up even after
researchers adjusted for differences in the patients' age, gender and
ethnicity.
The number of deaths in both groups was very small,
however, so this finding will need to be checked against larger data
sets as those become available.
Chiu also cautioned that this
increased risk of death may not be a sign that the variant is inherently
more lethal. Rather, it might simply be a reflection that its greater
transmissibility caused hospitals to become so overwhelmed and
healthcare resources to be stretched so thin that more deaths were the
result — especially in Southern California.
Dr. Marc Suchard,
an expert on infectious disease tracking at UCLA, said that some of the
team’s findings would probably be refined as more virus samples were genetically sequenced and more data came to light.
“It
remains critically important that we actively sequence the virus as
cases are diagnosed in our state,” said Suchard, who was not involved in
the UCSF work. “I am glad to see such a collaboration between academics
and public health departments in California to identify the emergence
of a previously unidentified lineage.”
A whistleblower leaked shocking images of Coca-Cola’s online training modules instructing employees to “try to be less white.”
Karlyn Borysenko, an anti-critical race theory activist, obtained the images from an internal whistleblower and posted them online:
“Confronting Racism: Understanding what it means to be white, challenging what it means to be racist”
“Try to be less white”
To be less white is to:
Be less oppressive
Be less arrogant
Be less certain
Be less defensive
Be less arrogant
Be more humble
Listen
Believe
Break with apathy
Break with white solidarity“In the US and other Western nations, white people are socialized to feel that they are inherently superior because they are white. Research shows that by age 3 to 4, children understand that it is better to be white.”
Karlyn Borysenko posted a video to her YouTube channel breaking down the images provided to her by a Coca-Cola whistleblower.
A press release on the McDonald’s website
says that part of the bonuses awarded to top company executives will be
based upon their efforts to hire women and what the company terms
“historically underrepresented groups” for top corporate positions.
“Beginning in 2021, the Company is incorporating quantitative human
capital management-related metrics to annual incentive compensation for
its Executive Vice Presidents,” the company said.
“In addition to the Company’s financial performance, executives will
be measured on their ability to champion our core values, improve
representation within leadership roles for both women and historically
underrepresented groups, and create a strong culture of inclusion within
the Company,” the company said.
The company has clear goals. By the end of 2025, 35 percent of the
people in jobs that are at the level of senior director and above will
be from underrepresented groups. That metric was at 29 percent in 2020,
according to the company.
As for women, the company has set a target of having 45 percent of
jobs at the level of senior director and above be women. That number was
37 percent as of 2020, according to the company
A convicted murderer who is now a leftist community activist in
Baltimore has proposed that the city pay criminals not to kill people.
Tyree Moorehead, who was convicted of second degree murder when he
was 15, has become a well known activist in the city where the murder
rate is sky rocketing.
Moorehead has repeatedly said that he shot about 20 people when he was a teenager, between the ages of 13 and 15 years old.
To stop the deaths, Moorehead told local news that the city should just start paying people to stop killing.
“I can relate to the shooters,” the activist told Fox 45. “Guess what they want? They want money.”
“I’ve talked to these people, I’ve seen the shooters, it’s a small city, I know who the hustlers are,” he added.
The activist puts up graffiti at scenes of deadly shootings, labeling them “no shoot zones.”
The New York Post reports
that “Baltimore has been wracked by violent crime in recent years,
closing out 2020 with 335 homicides, according to statistics from the
Baltimore Sun. In 2019, there were 348 murders.”
Baltimore Police spokesman T.J. Smith told the station that
Moorehead’s suggestion “speaks to the desperation that we all have,” to
lower the murder rate. However, he said that giving criminals cash will
just lead to them buying more guns.
“It could make it easier for people to get their hands on guns
because they now have an influx of a different level of cash,” he said.
Federal law enforcement agents have arrested ANTIFA terrorist
Daniel Baker of Tallahassee for transmission, in interstate commerce,
of communication containing a threat to kidnap or to injure Trump
supporters.
Baker issued a call to arms for “like-minded individuals” to
violently confront protestors gathered at the Florida Capitol this
Sunday. He specifically called for others to join him in encircling any
protestors and confining them at the Capitol complex using firearms.
Lawrence Keefe, United States Attorney for the Northern District of
Florida, announced the arrest.
“Extremists intent on violence from either end of the political and
social spectrums must be stopped, and they will be stopped,” Keefe said.
“The diligent work in this case by the FBI and other public safety
organizations has averted a crisis with this arrest, and we will not
stop in our efforts to detect, deter, and disrupt anyone else planning
to incite or commit violence.”
I have not seen this reported much. #Antifa
extremist Daniel Baker, 33, of Tallahassee, was arrested by the FBI
after calling for comrades to kidnap Trump supporters using firearms
last month. Baker previously traveled to both Syria & Seattle's
CHAZ. https://t.co/PN3GbCMiXbpic.twitter.com/avZ63dOjHm
Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Baker without
incident with assistance from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
and the Tallahassee Police Department.
“In these perilous times, we are steadfastly committed to
being as transparent as possible about the work your government does to
protect public safety and uphold the rule of law,” Keefe said. “While
extremists who plan mayhem may skulk in the shadows, it’s important that
we force them into the light and bring them to justice.”
Baker, a former U.S. Army Airborne infantryman who was kicked out of
the service, has a history of expressing his belief in violent tactics.
In recent days his social media posts had escalated significantly.
He specifically expressed an intent to violently disrupt protests on Inauguration Day,
and was actively recruiting others to join him. Baker, who actively
participated in multiple protests throughout the United States last
summer, has used social media as a way to promote, encourage, and
educate his followers on how to incapacitate and debilitate law
enforcement officers.
“This arrest serves as a message to anyone who
intends to incite or commit violence in the Northern District of
Florida: If you represent a threat to public safety, we will come for
you, we will find you, and we will prosecute you,” Keefe said. “Daniel
Baker’s actions show that he is a dangerous extremist, and the
law-abiding public is safer now that he has been arrested. We are, and
will remain, on high alert and will take all appropriate actions against
credible threats to the people of our District.”
Baker can be seen in photos and YouTube videos with a variety of firearms, including those with high-capacity magazines.
William Shakespeare, thou hast been getting canceled.
An
increasing number of woke teachers are refusing to study the Bard —
accusing his classic works of promoting "misogyny, racism, homophobia,
classism, anti-Semitism, and misogynoir."
A slew of English literature teachers told the School Library Journal (SLJ)
how they were ditching the likes of "Hamlet," "Macbeth" and "Romeo and
Juliet" to instead "make room for modern, diverse, and inclusive
voices."
"Shakespeare
was a tool used to ‘civilize’ Black and brown people in England’s
empire," insisted Shakespeare scholar Ayanna Thompson, a professor of
English at Arizona State University.
Teachers
also need to "challenge the whiteness" of the assumption that
Shakespeare’s works are "universal," insisted Jeffrey Austin, who is
head of a Michigan high school’s English literature department.
William Shakespeare.
Former Washington state public school teacher
Claire Bruncke told SLJ she banished the Bard from her classroom to
"stray from centering the narrative of white, cisgender, heterosexual
men."
"Eliminating Shakespeare was a step I could easily take to
work toward that. And it proved worthwhile for my students," she
insisted.
Other teachers said they were sticking with Shakespeare, but reframing his works through a more modern lens.
Sarah
Mulhern Gross, an English teacher at High Technology High School in
Lincroft, NJ, said she was teaching "Romeo and Juliet" "with a side of
toxic masculinity analysis."
In her SLJ article, "To Teach or Not
To Teach," librarian Amanda MacGregor acknowledged the Bard as a "genius
wordsmith" responsible for "masterful wordplay, creative use of
language, biting wit, puns, and innovative characters."
Bill Gates Wants Wealthy Countries to Eat Fully Plant-Based and Beef Should Be 100% Synthetic
Bill Gates was recently interviewed by MIT Technology
Review where he argued that the world’s richest countries should stop
eating beef and instead switch to a plant-based diet to help fight
global climate change.
Gate’s believes that the “80 poorest countries” should still rely on
eating real meat but plant-based should be the future for developed
countries.
“I do think all rich countries should
move to 100% synthetic beef. You can get used to the taste difference,
and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time.
Eventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of
change the [behavior of] people or use regulation to totally shift the
demand,” the Microsoft co-founder told the MIT Tech Review.
Gates addresses agriculture in his
new book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” and details the measures
needed to eliminate greenhouse-gas emissions. The billionaire software
developer and philanthropist discusses policy changes and tech
innovations needed to help curb industries with the largest carbon
footprints, like steel, cement and agriculture, where a third of all
greenhouse gas emissions — which trap heat and warm the climate — come
from livestock production.
Gates noted it would be almost
impossible to eliminate emissions from burping cows and fertilizer to
reduce methane emissions, saying that plant-based beef options are the
only viable option.
“There are all the things where they
feed them different food, like there’s this one compound that gives you a
20% reduction [in methane emissions]. But sadly, those bacteria [in
their digestive system that produce methane] are a necessary part of
breaking down the grass. And so I don’t know if there’ll be some natural
approach there. I’m afraid the synthetic [protein alternatives like
plant-based burgers] will be required for at least the beef thing.”
Gates is a fan of Impossible Foods who makes plant-based burgers and
other meat alternative products. Impossible Foods plans on cutting their
prices for grocery stores by 20% throughout the U.S. with a suggested
retail price of $5.49 for their burger patties.
Media Says No Proof Of Election Fraud, Well Here's 3 States Worth of Proof
Whether it’s the mainstream media,
Twitter, Facebook or any other platform with a leftist agenda, all you
hear is that there is “no evidence” of election fraud.
Well, the Data Integrity Group (DIG) has showcased a mountain of
evidence across several states and has so far released videos with their
findings on Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
The goal of the group is to present irrefutable data. Sources for the
raw data they used come from the Edison, Secretary of State, and SCYTL
feeds which is what was used to certify the election totals.
Below is hard evidence from the data for those in the media and Democrats who continue to say there is no proof of fraud.
Pennsylvania
In this first slide the data scientists show negative votes across 15 counties in PA that total over 400,000
votes taken from President Trump. There is no question of whether or
not this happened, this is the data used to verify the state–once again
Edison, SOS and SCYTL data.
In the next two PA slides you can see in Allegheny County that absentee votes went up on a normal gradual scale for Joe Biden.
In Trumps slide you can see at the second time stamp there was an injection of 145,241 votes and then they are all taken away.
Trump’s Election Day votes in Allegheny were taken away as well at
five different time intervals throughout the night, totaling over 25,000 votes which is confirmed across multiple data sources.
Here is Chester County PA where President Trump saw major decreases in votes across absentee and Election Day votes:
Lehigh County PA saw an over 66,000 vote drop for Trump:
Philadelphia has a history of corruption and this election looks no
different. In this slide you can see the data shows Biden received a
47:1 vote ratio over Trump. Trump received 2,152 votes to Biden’s 100,236. In 278 precincts in Philadelphia it would mean 97 out of 100 people voted for Joe Biden. Some precincts showed 99% for Biden.
Georgia
In Bibb County, GA you can see there was an exact vote switch between Trump and Biden of 12,173, giving Biden the lead.
When we asked local residents about these numbers in DeKalb they said
it’s impossible that 9 out of 10 people voted for Biden in their
county.
Fulton County seems to have as much corruption as Philadelphia. But
strictly looking at the data, 170 out of 384 precincts in Fulton County
voted 90% or more for Joe Biden.
Trump received only 9% of Election Day votes and 4% of absentee in
Fulton. There were several counties that reported 100% for Biden. These
numbers represent statistical anomalies that do not exist in normal
behavioral patterns.
Arizona
As you can see all the gray bars are relatively even, which is what
you would encounter with normal vote distribution. Statistically
speaking, the blue bars, which all represent the first batch of absentee
votes for Biden, should be roughly in line with the grey bars. Instead
the massive difference in votes between the first batch and the rest
implies a potential front load of votes for Biden in order to secure his
win in the state.
Questions and rebuttals arose that these spikes in the first drop
came because more people early voted for Biden, but our second slide
shows that there was an even amount of requests by Republicans for
early vote ballots and an even amount of returns by Republicans which
throws that argument out. Also these large early vote drops were not
consistent across the state.
In order to make those numbers work Biden would have to have received
100% of the Democrats, 100% of the Independents and a large portion of
the Republicans.
Sources confirm that 95% of registered republicans voted for Trump.
There is a large group of data scientist that are working on this
data around the clock to showcase all the irregularities within the
election.
Information on more states is still to come, including data on down ticket races.
Chief Medical Officer Says Canadians Will Lose "Freedom to Move Around" If They Refuse The Vaccine
If you live in Ontario, be prepared
to lose your “freedom to move around” if you refuse the Covid-19
vaccine, according to Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer.
When asked if he would make vaccines mandatory, Dr. David Williams
said “we can’t force someone to take a vaccine”, but went on to say that
if you wanted “ease of getting in to certain settings” you would have
to show proof of vaccination or be forced to wear personal protective
equipment.
"What may be mandatory, is proof of vaccination,
in order to have latitude and freedom to move around without wearing
personal protective equipment." – Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Williams pic.twitter.com/gHupcMxbcm
As we previously highlighted, governments
do not have to make the vaccine mandatory, they can simply make life
unlivable for people who refuse to take the vaccine.
If bars, restaurants, cinemas, sports
venues, airlines, employers and others all make the vaccination a
mandatory condition of service, anyone who refuses to take it will be
reduced to a personal form of de facto lockdown with their social lives
and mobility completely stunted.
Countries around the world sound like they are easing themselves into dictatorships.
Attacks on older Asians stoke fear as Lunar New Year begins
DAISY NGUYEN
OAKLAND,
Calif. (AP) — Police are stepping up their patrols and volunteers are
increasing their street presence after several violent attacks on older
Asians stoked fear in San Francisco Bay Area Chinatowns and subdued the
celebratory mood leading up to Lunar New Year.
City officials also
have visited Chinatowns in San Francisco and Oakland this week to
address residents' safety concerns and condemn the violence. They vowed
to combat a problem that has been simmering since the start of the
coronavirus pandemic but sparked new outrage after two unprovoked
attacks were caught on video within a span of days and spread widely
online.
In one, a young man shoved Vicha Ratanapakdee to the
ground on Jan. 28 as he was taking his morning walk in San Francisco's
Anza Vista neighborhood. The 84-year-old Thai man's head struck the
pavement, and he died two days later in a hospital. Prosecutors charged a
19-year-old with murder and elder abuse.
On Jan. 31, a security
camera caught a man in a hooded sweatshirt barreling into a 91-year-old
Asian man in Oakland's Chinatown, causing him to fall face-first into
the pavement, narrowly missing a bike rack. Police arrested the suspect
and said he had assaulted a couple on the same block later that day and
another on Feb. 1.
In just the last two weeks, authorities
recorded 18 crimes against Asian Americans around Oakland’s Chinatown,
said Nancy O'Malley, district attorney for Alameda County.
Community
advocates said the attacks have left many older Asians fearful about
going out to shop for Friday's start of the Lunar New Year, the most
important holiday in several East Asian countries that marks the
beginning of the Chinese lunar calendar. Shops and restaurants are
typically bustling in Chinatowns this time of year, but the pandemic and
safety concerns have dampened the festive atmosphere.
“There's a
huge amount of sadness and rage in the community,” said Alvina Wong,
director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network. “Folks are on edge
and tense and don't know when the next thing is going to happen. They
see what's happening in other cities, and it's not stopping.”
The
recent attacks represent the latest spike in verbal and physical attacks
against Asian Americans since the coronavirus, which emerged in China,
reached the United States. Stop AAPI Hate, launched by two advocacy
groups to encourage Asian Americans to report such incidents, has
documented more than 3,000 attacks to date.
O'Malley said older
Asians are targeted because of the stereotype that they don't report
crimes due to language barriers. Her office is investigating whether the
attacks were racially motivated and has launched a special response
unit focused on crimes against Asian Americans, especially older Asians.
She said her team will focus on outreach and encourage victims to report crimes.
“For
many of the seniors, it's not part of their nature or culture to call
the police. Some of them come from countries where you do everything to
avoid the police,” the prosecutor said. “So the more they meet with us
and understand our culture, the more people will open up to us about
what's been happening to them.”
Oakland's new police chief,
LeRonne Armstrong, visited Chinatown twice in his first week to build
trust with business owners and residents and let them know about the
increased presence of police there.
“We want them to feel like they're not alone,” he said.
Meanwhile, the attacks have prompted volunteers to offer to walk older residents to their cars or homes after shopping.
Jacob
Azevedo said more than 200 people signed up after he posted on social
media the idea of an on-call buddy system to chaperone residents who
feel unsafe walking alone in Oakland's Chinatown. They also donated
thousands of dollars to help him buy a personal alarm device that will
be distributed to older Asians in the community.
“The only way that we can help people and stop this from happening is if everyone steps in," he said.
Azevedo
said he intends to keep the program going “as long as old people don’t
feel safe and people are taking advantage of a vulnerable group like
that.”
