This past Sunday marked the one year anniversary of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee being assaulted while on a walk in San Francisco and died.
The Asian Justice Rally, held in five other cities along side San Francisco (Atlanta. Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia), all of them seeking justice for Asian Americans who have been harassed, assaulted, or killed in alarming numbers since the start of the pandemic. This week, San Francisco Police reported anti-Asian hate crimes have spiked more than 500% since the pandemic began, victims continue to come forward.
In San Francisco, there were many notable speakers at the rally, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed and San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu.
After the rally, there was a short march to where Vicha died, where there was a national moment of silence as well as a cello performance and some comments by activist Justin Zhu, “We will not be silenced.”
After that, there was a luncheon in Japantown, not too far from the rally & march locations, where a slideshow of Vicha’s life was shown, as well as many speakers discussing about the #StopAsianHate movement.
It was really great to see all of those interested and involved in the community to help address the issue of #StopAsianHate.
