A local business in downtown Albuquerque was attacked by graffiti criminals. The Asian Noodle Bar on Central. The graffiti spouted hate insinuating a link between Asian Merchants and Covid-19.

Our response follows.

The Chinese American Citizens Alliance, founded nationally in 1895, unequivocally denounces these acts of racism.  Let us be clear, this Anti-Asian Graffiti is not free speech, it’s criminal destruction of property at the very least.  Depending on intention, and how it’s expressed, it could be considered a hate crime.  The person who did this is a perpetrator, and if caught should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Do we think this disproportionate? No. Our community has been on the end of heinous discrimination from institutional ethnic cleansing like the intent of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act to the vigilante mob that nearly took the lives of Americans in Clovis just because of their Asian Heritage, during WWII.  We are well acquainted with this unchecked sentiment and it needs to stop.

We therefore call on the Mayor, the Chief of Police, and the District Attorney to avail themselves of the tools to combat this type of criminality.  And if in their opinion they don’t have the tools, then we need to work with the legislative bodies of the City Council, County Commission and State Legislature to give them the tools to apprehend and prosecute these purveyors of hate.  It shouldn’t stand if it’s Anti-Asian or Anti-any other ethnic minority. People of good conscience…People who are patriotic, who practice good citizenship will understand that in this health crisis, what is needed is to get the facts about covid-19, to take health precautions and above all, not to be racist.