Oklahoma AAPI Community Reacts To COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act Signed By President Biden

President Joe Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law Thursday. It provides support for law enforcement agencies that respond to hate crimes against Asian American and Pacific Islanders.

This bill is certainly causing mixed reactions, some think these measures are helpful while others think the bill could do more to protect the AAPI community.

In a rare bipartisan move the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act passed Congress and was signed into law by Biden Thursday afternoon.

“I’m proud today, the Democrats and Republicans have stood up together,” said Biden.

“In the past year alone Asian American hate crimes have come up by 150%,” said a speaker for the AAPI community in Oklahoma City.

One thing the bill does is give more money to local law enforcement to track Asian hate crimes and respond to them.

Veronica Laizure a Co-chair of the Asian Task Force on Domestic & Sexual Violence said this is just one piece of the puzzle.

“There is not a lot of evidence to show that more policing, or more data collection is actually going to address the root causes of anti-American bias,” she said.

She added that more can be done before a hate crime is committed.

“What are the resources you can put into communities that actually help educate people and help people become more familiar with and supportive of the Asian communities that are right next door but might as well be worlds away?” said Laizure.

The President of the Asia Society of Oklahoma said he is grateful for the support at the federal level.

“As a leader of the community I am extremely happy and I will definitely share this news to our community about what is going on today and I think this is going to be great, very positive,” said Minh Michael Do.