A woman who allegedly made anti-Asian remarks and pepper-sprayed four people in New York City last weekend was arrested and charged with hate crimes, police said Friday.
Madeline Barker, 47, was charged with two counts of assault as a hate crime, two counts of attempted assault as a hate crime and four counts of harassment as a hate crime, het die polisiekantoor in New York gesê.
CNN was not immediately able to identify an attorney for Barker, who is from Merritt Island, Florida, volgens die NYPD. CNN reached out to the Legal Aid Society to determine whether it’s representing her.
Die aanval, which was investigated by the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force, happened June 11 in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District and was partially caught on video.
Die video released by police showed a woman brandishing what appeared to be pepper-spray. The woman then proceeded to pepper-spray four women during the altercation, het die NYPD gesê. The women refused medical attention, according to an earlier news release from police.
At some point during the altercation, not captured in the video that the NYPD released, an unidentified Asian man passed the group on the sidewalk, NYPD Sergeant Anwar Ishmael told CNN. The woman allegedly turned to him and said, “You take all your b***hes back to where you came from,” Ishmael said.
Uiteindelik, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office will determine what charges Barker will face.
Hate crimes, including those against Asians in the US, have seen a sharp increase in recent years. The Covid-19 pandemic sparked attacks against Asians amid online and political rhetoric stigmatizing them, but this category of hate crime is often underreported.
Between March 31, 2021, en Maart 31, 2022, 110 van 577 hate crime incidents targeted Asians, Volgens die NYPD Hate Crimes Dashboard. In Maart 2022 alleen, there were nine incidents treated as hate crimes targeting Asian Americans, with five arrests.
In 2020, attacks targeting Asians nationally spiked to 279 van 161 in 2019, Volgens die FBI hate crime report.
And despite the concerning increase in such crimes, a small percentage of reported attacks against Asians end up in convictions.
A verslag doen from the Asian American Bar Association of New York found that of the 233 reported attacks against Asian Americans in New York City in the first three quarters of 2021, seven led to hate crime convictions as of late May.
