This is beyond heartbreaking. Our AAPI neighbors deserve so much better. We all need to step up to keep folks safe.

I worry about my kids, family, friends and neighbors.

There is much more we can and must do at the city level to #StopAsianHate and combat hate in all its forms. https://twitter.com/rontkim/status/1386307325338738690

We need to fully fund and staff the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes — which was entirely defunded and eliminated in the FY21 budget. We need to restart, staff and fund this agency so that it can get to work rooting out hate in ways that prioritize justice and prevention.

We should fully fund the @NYCAgainstHate pilot that members of @JFREJNYC and the Coalition Against Hate organized, and expand it to districts all over NYC, and fund/expand the availability of bystander intervention trainings to empower community members. http://nycagainsthate.org 

We should implement rapid response tactics to hate violence such as community alerts, town halls, neighborhood safety training and neighborhood education training that spans multiple identities.

#StopAsianHate

We must fund community-based organizations to gather hate-related data — Gaining accurate data for anti-Asian hate, antisemitism, Islamophobia and other hate crimes allows the city to respond appropriately to identify strategies to curb its prevalence.

#StopAsianHate

We need to invest in our kids and our education system:

Expand hate-crime-prevention educational programming in all NYC middle and high schools.

Implement culturally responsive education in schools.

Anti-racist training for all staff.

#StopAsianHate https://queenseagle.com/all/aleda-gagarin-opinion-cultural-responsive-education