Leading Asian American lawyers are calling for policy changes they argue could reduce the number of hate incidents in New York, including changes to bail reform laws pushed by criminal justice reform groups.
In a report released Tuesday, the Asian American Bar Association of New York said bail reforms had allowed the alleged perpetrators in a number of attacks on Asians to remain free.
“After two years of increased incidents of hate crimes against Asian Americans,” the report stated, “it is clear that innocent members of the AAPI community have unfairly paid the price of ‘equitable justice.’”
We support the original impulse of bail reform, which is that poor people should not be in jail just because they're poor. But we think there's further conversations about that that can be had. Like, hate crimes maybe shouldn’t be eligible for bail
The changes to bail laws were part of a series of proposals made by AABANY, in addition to funding for diversion programs for defendants, increased cultural sensitivity training for law enforcement agencies and victims assistance programs.
There were nearly 11,000 anti-Asian hate incidents nationally between March 31st, 2020 and Dec. 31st, 2021, according to Stop AAPI Hate. According to the AABANY report, of the 233 anti-Asian incidents reported in the five boroughs over the first three quarters of 2021, nearly 60% took place in Manhattan.
“The AAPI community in the United States has been under siege since the onset of the global pandemic,” read the report, which listed a number of recent victims of Asian descent. These included Yao Pan Ma, who died on Dec. 31st, after an attack in Harlem; Michelle Go, who was pushed off a subway platform in Times Square; and GuiYing Ma, who died in Queens in February following a violent attack.
A recent report -The STAATUS (Social Tracking of Asian Americans in the U.S.) Index --found that 33% of adults in the U.S. feel Asian Americans “are more loyal to their country of origin than to the United States,” up from 20% last year, while the percentage of people who think, erroneously, that Asian Americans are at least partly responsible for COVID has nearly doubled.
“We say 'this is not us' but unfortunately it is many of us,” said Loretta Lynch, the former U.S. Attorney General who is now a partner at the law firm Paul, Weiss, which helped prepare the AABANY report. She spoke at a press conference unveiling the findings.
A contentious issue
Bail reform has been among the most contentious issues pushed by criminal justice reform advocates in recent years, with reformers arguing that far too many people accused of crimes are jailed because they can’t afford bail, a problem that especially hurts communities of color, while conservatives have said any loosening of bail laws would lead to higher crime.
In New York, policy advocates claimed successes in 2019 by reducing the scope for bail, but those reforms were subsequently rolled back, and state Republicans have seized on a rise in crime as evidence that Democrats are “pro-criminal.” In a recent Siena poll 56% of voters said the 2019 bail reforms had been bad for New York.
In March, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander released a report that assessed the impact of bail reforms.
“Further rollbacks to the bail reforms passed in 2019 would primarily serve to extract more money from vulnerable communities and increase the number of people held in City jails awaiting trial,” read the report. “There is no evidence that they would lead to a reduction in crime.”
AABANY pointed to several instances of repeat offenders who have been charged with hate crimes against Asian New Yorkers, including a Brooklyn man accused in three separate attacks last year and a city woman charged in four incidents. It wasn’t clear in each instance how bail reform might have figured in their being on the streets.
According to AABANY, “bail-eligible crimes should be expanded to include all crimes involving violence or the threat of violence.”
Other organizations are wary of AABANY’s proposals.
Carlyn Cowen, chief policy and public affairs officer at the Chinese-American Planning Council, acknowledged that ongoing attacks had created “a very real fear in the AA community.”
But Cowen, who uses the pronouns they and them, said it was more important to focus on addressing the root causes of violence, including economic insecurity, which had been exacerbated by the pandemic.
We have seen that carceral solutions are not keeping anyone safe
“We have seen that carceral solutions are not keeping anyone safe,” said Cowen, who added that they were still going through the AABANY report.
A spokesperson for the Bronx Defenders, which also has a bail reform initiative, said the organization needed more time to respond to AABANY’s proposals
Chris Kwok, an attorney who helped prepare the report as a member of AABANY’s Anti-Asian Violence Task Force, said the organization’s push for changes to bail laws was made with an awareness that historically, the high cost of bail had “a disproportionate impact on African Americans and Latinos,” resulting in many of them remaining in jail.
“We support the original impulse of bail reform, which is that poor people should not be in jail just because they're poor,” said Kwok. “But we think there's further conversations about that that can be had. Like, hate crimes maybe shouldn’t be eligible for bail.”
This article was updated to correct the pronouns used by Carlyn Cowen.
