Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Rise

The past two years have brought an unprecedented spate of anti-Asian hate crimes to the city, ranging from schoolyard graffiti to a street fight to cross burnings.

Arcadia’s Chinese population grew rapidly in the 1980s with the arrival of families from Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Before 1989, city and county officials said, they had no record of any anti-Asian incidents in Arcadia, an upper-middle-class bedroom community.

But on Oct. 22 and Dec. 11, 1989, there were two cross burnings on the front lawns of homes belonging to Chinese families. The first burning, which occurred on Norman Avenue, still is under investigation. Two 16-year-olds were arrested in connection with the latter incident.

On Nov. 2, 1989, an 18-year-old white struck a 14-year-old Chinese-American junior high school student in the 1400 block of South 1st Avenue in what authorities described as a racially motivated attack. The white youth was fined and placed on three years probation.

On Dec. 22, 1989, a Chinese family found an 8 1/2-by-11-inch flyer on its doorstep. The flyer included a drawing of an Asian person choking, and a message telling the family “to get out of the country,” Arcadia Police Capt. David Hinig said. Authorities still don’t know who sent the flyer.

The next day, a group of teen-agers spray-painted swastikas and anti-Asian slogans on the walls of two schools, a public park and the Mandarin Baptist Church. Six juveniles were arrested, and four were found guilty and placed on probation.

Last year, there were two reported incidents, both still under investigation. On Jan. 21, 1990, anti-Asian graffiti were chalked on a white family’s driveway and accompanied by hate mail. Hinig said it was unclear why the vandals chose that house.

On May 1, a group of teen-agers accosted a Chinese family and told them to “to go back to the country where you belong,” Hinig said.

Hinig said that although the incidents are disturbing, they probably are isolated occurrences and don’t reflect widespread anti-Asian sentiment in the city.

But some Chinese community members fear that such crimes may increase, particularly if there is a public controversy over the city’s English-language sign law.

That’s part of the reason the Arcadia Chinese Assn. is opposing efforts by Los Angeles activists to mount a legal challenge to the law.

“We will get hurt,” said Min Mey Chang, who is active in the association. “The people who will get hurt the most are the students. The kids learn from the parents, and then the kids go to school. My son said maybe the Caucasian students later will beat him.”