NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – The NYPD increased its presence in Asian communities after shootings at massage parlors in the Atlanta area on Tuesday left eight people dead, many of them women of Asian descent.
NYPD Counterterrorism said it was “monitoring the shooting of Asian Americans in Georgia.”
“While there is no known nexus to NYC we will be deploying assets to our great Asian communities across the city out of an abundance of caution,” the department tweeted.
The killings in Georgia came amid a recent wave of attacks against Asian Americans, including in New York City, that coincided with the coronavirus pandemic.
A 21-year-old suspect, Robert Aaron Long, was taken into custody in the Georgia shootings. Police haven’t said what a potential motive may have been in the shootings.
Mayor Bill de Blasio addressed the shootings and the NYPD's response at his daily briefing on Wednesday, saying "we all need to understand the pain that Asian Americans are going through right now in this city and all over the country."
“There is today a major deployment of NYPD counterterrorism forces in communities around the city, including some of the most prominent Asian communities in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn,” the mayor said. “And wherever we get any reports of concern, we’re going to make sure to have a real strong presence.”
“Of course, as usual, the NYPD is assessing the pattern of what we saw in Atlanta, looking for anything that might tell us additional information we need to know here,” de Blasio said. “But I want to assure all New Yorkers, and particular Asian-American New Yorkers, that we are here for you. The NYPD and all New Yorkers will stand by you in this incredibly difficult moment.”
City Council Speaker Cory Johnson also responded to the shootings.
“This is a horrific crime at a time when we’re already seeing a spike in anti-Asian violence,” Johnson tweeted. “We must stand up for our sisters and brothers in the AAPI community.”
New York City saw an increase in anti-Asian bias incidents over the last year, prompting the NYPD to create a task force comprised of 25 Asian American detectives who speak 10 languages to investigate the crimes.
"There is the new task force in the NYPD but it doesn't seem to have enough teeth and also there needs to be much more education to all New Yorkers about this increase in hate crimes against Asian-Americans and why that's the case and the city can and should be doing much more," said New York State Sen. John Liu. "The bias incidents have been taking place all across the country. In New York City, there's been a many fold increase. In 2019, there were three incidents, in 2020 there were 29 incidents. That's ten times and that's just counting the incidents that were reported to the police."
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