Safety For Who? A fishbowl bridging conversation on Anti-Asian violence and policing in the Bay Area
Since the start of the pandemic, we have witnessed a frightening increase in anti-Asian violence in the California Bay Area, particularly within Oakland and San Francisco Chinatown. Still, this type of violence is not new— South Asian and Sikh communities in the Bay also faced high rates of discrimination and violence following 9/11, similarly bearing the brunt of misplaced blame for a national crisis. Asian community members in the region want to prevent further violence from taking place in their neighborhoods, but they are an ideologically diverse group who have different ideas on whether or not the police should be involved. Some have called for an increase in police funding while others who are in favor of community-based violence prevention programs are against this call, noting that increased police presence does not deter crime and could bring harm to Black community members. In this live fishbowl bridging conversation, we’ll gather with an ideologically diverse group of Bay Area Asian leaders to explore: What is safety to different communities? What does inter-community solidarity look like in the face of increasing race-based violence? And how can we reimagine public safety protocols to be safe for all?
Speakers