In response to the recent mass shooting in Atlanta, the Appleton Police Department released a statement decrying violence on a national level against Asian Americans and expressing a desire to care for and stand with the Asian Americans in our local community.
Mayor Woodford and Alderperson Maiyoua Thao (District 7) also spoke against anti-Asian violence during the 03/17/2021 Common Council meeting.
I wanted to find out how things currently stand for the Asian members of our local community, so I reached out to Chief Thomas.
On the positive side, per Chief Thomas, they do not have any reported hate crimes against Asian Americans, and crimes against Asian Americans locally have not gone up.
On the negative side, Chief Thomas reported that, per conversations with Hmong community members and friends, negative comments and slurs directed toward Hmong individuals have increased over the last year. He also mentioned that “one business had a window broken but we were not able to definitively say it was race motivated.” I asked him if there was any sort of pattern or demographic regarding when or from whom the slurs were originating, but he said they were random.
Per Chief Thomas, “[T]he majority of hate crimes are not reported, that is why it is sometimes dangerous to rely just on reported cases.” He also stated, “The crimes against Asian Americans locally has not gone up but we need to make sure we continue to bring attention to it so it doesn’t.”
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