Current Events > Asian politician skull smashed in apparent Hate Crime in California

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.thedailybeast.com/anders-fung-bay-area-councilman-has-skull-smashed-in-apparent-hate-crime

Two young men in hoodies allegedly dropped a cement block on the head of Bay Area city council member Anders Fung as he hiked with his family on Saturday, injuring his neck and leaving a deep gash in his skull. The attack was due to his ethnicity, he said Sunday. He is Millbrae city councils first Chinese immigrant elected official. Fund recounted the horrific attack in a Facebook post, including of the cement block with his blood on it. We went out to Lands End for a little family hiking; its a beautiful place, Fung told the San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday. Then this big concrete block landed on my head and I instantly fell to the ground. The assailants then fled, but not before Fungs wife took photos of them. When his wife and two children started yelling at the men, they replied with middle fingers. When my family confronted the perpetrators demanding them to stop, one of them gave my family an obscene hand gesture, Fung wrote in the post. The men then ran off and have not been apprehended or identified. Fungs injuries included a cervical disc herniation and six metal stitches to clamp back together his scalp. Fund has represented his council since 2020. San Francisco police are investigating the incident.

Rising anti-Asian hate crimes in the San Francisco Bay area have led to a number of political moves in recent weeks. Last Tuesday, San Franciscos District Attorney Chesa Boudin was ousted in a recall vote fed by Asian American groups who protested against the reformist, who called the murder of an 84-year-old Thai immigrant the result of a temper tantrum and declined to charge the perpetrator with hate-crime charges. Were tired of having attacks on our seniors dismissed, delegitimized, ignored, the Asian Pacific Democratic Club tweeted. Its not progressive or Democratic to talk at, instead of listen to, communities of color.

It's becoming increasingly obvious that there's a massive elephant in the room nobody wants to address when it comes to the staggering majority of heinous attacks like this.

that's really terrible.

at least with medical care, it seems like something he'll eventually recover from which isn't something I was expecting from the topic title.

hope the perpetrators are locked up, though.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

I'm assuming that he's trying to make some veiled reference to the race of the perpetrators.

This is really insane and makes me so mad. I wish the family had been able to reach the attackers and beat the shit out of them

gunplagirl posted...

I'm assuming that he's trying to make some veiled reference to the race of the perpetrators.

I'm going to make an un-veiled reference, to something else: almost all of these attacks in NYC were perpetrated by some homeless guy with a long arrest record and mental health issues. I don't expect much different in the bay area.

Questionmarktarius posted...

I'm going to make an un-veiled reference, to something else: almost all of these attacks in NYC were perpetrated by some crazy homeless guy with a long arrest record. I don't expect much different in the bay area.

While you're not the poster who needed to clarify, I do appreciate that you specified several factors. I'd rather you drop the ableist term "crazy" is an offensive term to describe various mental health issues.

gunplagirl posted...

I'd rather you drop the ableist term "crazy" is an offensive term to describe various mental health issues.

That's fair. Gonna go edit right quick.

Questionmarktarius posted...

That's fair. Gonna go edit right quick.

I appreciate it.

I just got off work so I won't go too in depth but I will say this: if we treated homelessness by actually housing people, then there'd be a drastic reduction in crimes of necessity and crimes of opportunity. There'd also be a marked decrease in the number of mental health issues those people would face, as being homeless is extremely mentally and emotionally taxing even before taking into account how they're treated as pests by cities and the general population.

Housing is a human right. Mental health care is a human right. Food is a human right.

When you see news stories about violence against Asian Americans, it does often seem to be crazy homeless people who also happen to be black. This particular attack seems more coordinated and pre-meditated, though.

gunplagirl posted...

I'm assuming that he's trying to make some veiled reference to the race of the perpetrators.

Actually no. When you assume, you make an ass out of "u" and "me". Also as anyone with a functioning brain knows, the people committing these violent acts come from a number of varying backgrounds.

I think in quite a few of these cases, the perpetrators are (as Questionmarktarius said) people with significant unchecked mental health issues that the system lets slip through the cracks because so many aspects and systems within America are completely fucked. We have an already abysmal criminal justice system that's progressively becoming worse thanks to flawed bail reform laws that are effectively turning jails into revolving doors of people who either need to stay within jail and/or need significant mental health resources, which we know they'll never get because if most law-abiding Americans can't afford insurance, what chance do career criminals within the system have? Even though they've done objectively terrible things and deserve to be punished, they still deserve the mental healthcare they need. By not attacking the problem at the very obvious root, we're effectively doing nothing. This doesn't absolve the perpetrators of anything, as there are indeed a metric shit ton of similar incidents involving people who actively target Asian-Americans and deliberately victimize them.

What makes this all worse is how it intersects with how Asian-Americans are viewed in America's racist quasi-pecking order. A lot of people don't understand that anti-Asian sentiment, specifically Sinophobia, has been around for as long as Chinese immigrants have been coming to the country. These attacks aren't new, they're not some viral trend that popped out of nowhere, and people tend to turn a blind eye to them because too many Americans just don't register anti-Asian bigotry as being such a pervasive problem. Yes, there are a lot of mentally ill individuals lashing out in public, but there are just as much, if not more people who are targeting Asian-American immigrants because of their ethnic background and the unfortunate stigma around immigrants as a whole, which is something that's been part of American culture since the country's inception.

I personally feel while obviously it wasn't an intentional effect, the current media narrative of how racism is portrayed and handled in America has caused a lot of people to simply forget that unfortunately it's not just "Black and brown" people that have to deal with the evils of White supremacy. Asian-Americans are largely viewed in this strange grey area, thanks to things like the "model minority" stereotype. I live in an area where these attacks are becoming frequent, and a lot of local news outlets don't seem to drive the point home that these are attacks that are happening because people are victimizing immigrants because they possibly see them as easy targets.

It's frustrating because on the surface these seem like very cut-and-dry incidents, but there are so many intersecting elements that go into why they're frequent, and I feel like American society is doing nothing about it, save for platitudes like finally acknowledging AAPI heritage month more than a decade after it became a thing and relegating its existence to short video packages bookending news programs.

This is the consequence of shutting down all the mental asylums from the 50s to the 70s, which was a huge "both sides!" failure. Lefties' hearts were bleeding about them, and righties' didn't want to fund it anyway.

Questionmarktarius posted...

This is the consequence of shutting down all the mental asylums from the 50s to the 70s, which was a huge "both sides!" failure. Lefties' hearts were bleeding about them, and righties' didn't want to fund it anyway.

Bro bridges don't stretch that much

Eh sorry I'm shitposting in a sensitive topic

This one doesnt seem like a mental health problem though. Two people who then ran away giving middle fingers?

"Hiking" implies it's not a gang thing, unless the gangs are taking territory in the woods now.
Could have just been plain old assholes this time, possibly drunk.

In all fairness, aren't a lot of the people attacking Asians actually white trash, as opposed to young edgy black guys?

Questionmarktarius posted...

"Hiking" implies it's not a gang thing, unless the gangs are taking territory in the woods now.
Could have just been plain old assholes this time, possibly drunk.

There are some Mexican cartels who control wilderness land to use to grow Marijuana. Obviously they don't want anyone to know about the growing though and there have been incidents where innocent hikers accidently stumbled onto the operation. I think some people have been killed

This probably isn't what was happening here though

whats with this rise of asian hate in the USA? Is there some 'reason' for it? More immigration from Asian countires?

Shadowplay posted...

In all fairness, aren't a lot of the people attacking Asians actually white trash, as opposed to young edgy black guys?

Most of them are Trump supporters

Shadowplay posted...

In all fairness, aren't a lot of the people attacking Asians actually white trash, as opposed to young edgy black guys?

Yes, but that gets ingored for the narrative. It's mostly white people by the numbers, and then there's one guy who has commited nearly 100 attacks on Asian people and businesses, he alone accounted for over 50% of anti-asian crimes in his area last year. But again, doesn't fit the narrative. Most of the black people in these attacks are also legit crazy homelss people who do not single out Asians(they attack anybody at will) but their other crimes get ignored, again for the narrative.

Lebronwon posted...

The assailants then fled, but not before Fungs wife took photos of them

Did they release the pics in hopes to find the guys? Didn't see them in the article

ktownslayer16 posted...

whats with this rise of asian hate in the USA? Is there some 'reason' for it? More immigration from Asian countires?

Trump caused it when Covid started. He started calling it the China Virus and Kung Flu, and blaming Chinese people for the virus existing. And of course racist anti Asian people always think all Asians are Chinese

Zikten posted...

Trump caused it when Covid started. He started calling it the China Virus and Kung Flu, and blaming Chinese people for the virus existing. And of course racist anti Asian people always think all Asians are Chinese

This has been an issue for long, long before COVID misinformation.

ktownslayer16 posted...

whats with this rise of asian hate in the USA? Is there some 'reason' for it? More immigration from Asian countires?

Covid came from china therefore all asians suck. Dont you know the logic?

gunplagirl posted...

While you're not the poster who needed to clarify, I do appreciate that you specified several factors. I'd rather you drop the ableist term "crazy" is an offensive term to describe various mental health issues.

oh FFS

God forbid we risk "offending" the perpetrators of hate crimes.

I wonder how it felt. He said he dropped as soon as the block hit his head. I'm sure he was aware/conscious in that instance but probably did not immediately feel any pain. Then probably felt blood rush to his head and the feeling of his warm blood oozing out of his wound and running down his head.

gunplagirl posted...

I'm assuming that he's trying to make some veiled reference to the race of the perpetrators.

Pretty cowardly for him to make a passive aggressive post like that not just flat out say it

What_ posted...

Pretty cowardly for him to make a passive aggressive post like that not just flat out say it

Except I thoroughly explained what I meant in post #12 lmao

There's apparently a picture of the two attackers: https://bit.ly/3y2gT4x
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/8/2/AAPVm4AADWf2.jpg

Humble_Novice posted...

There's apparently a picture of the two attackers: https://bit.ly/3y2gT4x
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/8/2/AAPVm4AADWf2.jpg

Can't really make out much...

Ruvan22 posted...

Can't really make out much...

You can't.

However, zoom in on the left one's nose......

Ruvan22 posted...

Can't really make out much...

If they are in the background of any other photos that day or there are surveillance cameras, they could be identified by their clothing and possibly get a better look at their faces or vehicle

So it wasn't black kids after all.

CRON posted...

Except I thoroughly explained what I meant in post #12 lmao

Haven't you ever heard the phrase "say what you mean and mean what you say"?

You can't just drop some half-assed vague post, wait 30 minutes to clarify, and expect people to take it without objection.

Humble_Novice posted...

There's apparently a picture of the two attackers: https://bit.ly/3y2gT4x
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/8/2/AAPVm4AADWf2.jpg

What is that stance on the right guy? Who walks like that?