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Each night, neighbors converge on the Si family’s two-story home, which has large windows and a large colonnaded porch.
Some sit in camping chairs facing the driveway. Others watch from their cars or patrol nearby parks.
The Sis moved to this exclusive Ladera Ranch neighborhood in the US state of California a few months ago, with the country mired in the Covid-19 pandemic and hate crimes against Asian Americans on the rise.
Almost immediately, teens swooped in for late-night visits, repeatedly ringing the doorbell, yelling and banging on the door.
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One told Haijun Si to “go back to your country.” Another called Si’s wife, a pejorative insult used to describe a Chinese person. Some threw stones.
Sometimes the interruptions occurred just as the family sat down to dinner.
Other times Si’s 8-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son woke up at midnight.
Si and his wife took turns standing guard outside. They installed a new fence and cameras. They called the police.
But the attacks kept coming, until their new neighbors intervened.
“At first I didn’t understand the extent of the bullying and how often it was happening,” said Layla Parks, who organized the neighborhood night watch. “I was immediately outraged and wanted to help.”
Merrill Christenson / Washington Post
Haijun Si, left, is standing with Brian Dazey, a Ladera Ranch community resident who volunteered to stand guard outside Si’s home.
Incidents of violence and hatred directed at Asian Americans have increased in California, including Orange County, since the beginning of the pandemic, with some blaming Asians for the origins of the coronavirus in Wuhan, China.
A recent spate of violent attacks in Oakland, San Francisco, New York City and elsewhere has drawn national attention and sparked fear among Asian Americans, although it is unclear whether some of the incidents were racially motivated. .
In February, in Koreatown in the United States, two men hurled anti-Asian slurs at a 27-year-old Korean-born US Air Force veteran, calling him a “Chinese virus” and then attacking him, he told KTLA.
“We’re seeing an epidemic of hate right now, and we have to come together,” said State Senator Dave Min (D-Irvine), who represents the district west of Ladera Ranch, said last week at an event to show his support. to the family Yes.
While Orange County officials are still gathering information on reports made in 2020, preliminary statistics indicate a 10-fold increase in hate incidents against Asian Americans, said Alison Edwards, the organization’s executive director without For-profit OC Human Relations.
It’s a troubling rebound that experts have attributed in part to Donald Trump’s rhetoric about the pandemic, including using terms like “China virus” and “kung flu.”
Last year, California saw a steady increase in hate incidents and crimes against Asian Americans, said Brian Levin, executive director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.
Stereotypes and conspiracy theories that identify Asians as responsible for COVID-19 have been embraced by wide areas of the country, Levin said, with a new survey from the Center for Public Integrity / Ipsos showing that nearly 1 in 4 Americans have concerns about being physically close to Asians.
A “catalytic event” like the pandemic, with stereotypes of political and social influencers acting as an accelerator, often leads to increased targeting of racial groups, Levin said.
Attacks on the family If they fit another pattern: The homes of minority residents tend to be targeted by neighbors of certain age groups, Levin said.
“The most common offenders of these residential crimes are territory-oriented youth with moderate biases seeking an excitement or older neighbors reacting to a perceived threat or change,” Levin said.
The Si family came to the United States from China four years ago.
In September, the family moved to Ladera Ranch from Corona, seeking to escape the heat of the Inland Empire and drawn by the planned community’s lush trees, carefully manicured lawns and parks.
Ladera Ranch is a pleasant place, where neighbors frequently share meals or spend evenings chatting on the sidewalk while their children play.
But, some residents say, there is a dark side to the unincorporated community of around 30,000 residents, which is roughly two-thirds white, 14% Latino, and 13% Asian.
After the attacks began, Si installed a $ 3,000 (NZ $ 4,118) wrought iron fence around his front porch and placed spotlights and cameras around the property.
He hung a heavy chain in the driveway to prevent teens from riding bikes to his door.
“My children are afraid. I’m very upset, ”said Si, 48.“ At night, my wife and I couldn’t sleep for more than three or four hours. Please, parents, tell your children not to do that again. “
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has been called to the home seven times between October 2020 and February. Agents have increased patrols in the area and the department has launched an investigation, Sgt. Dennis Breckner said.
Still, the doorbell kept ringing, Yes said. Nothing helped until her neighbors intervened and promised to end the harassment.
Parks, who walks around the neighborhood every day, introduced himself to Si and his family when he noticed they were moving out last year.
In early February, Si asked Parks for advice.
He had already told her about the constant doorbell, and she had offered to help if needed.
At first, he thought it was a harmless childish “ding-dong ditch” joke.
But as the harassment continued, including racial slurs against the family, Parks realized this was something uglier.
“It makes me physically sick,” said Parks, 30. “This has opened my eyes to the racism that is alive and well at Ladera Ranch. It definitely made me sad for this community, because this is a wonderful place full of friends and neighbors who love and care for each other. “
In a neighborhood Facebook group, Parks posted images of Si from a recent attack and sought volunteers to protect the family home. I wanted coverage from 6pm until at least midnight.
Neighbors signed up en masse.
“I got involved because I am raising a little boy here. I don’t want to put a ‘for sale’ sign in front of my house and say, ‘I can’t deal with this,’ ”said Emily Lippincott, 40, who lives nearby in Rancho Mission Viejo. “I kept seeing excuses being made, ‘Oh, only children are children.’ No, these are months of terrorizing this poor family. “
Neighbors estimate that 15 to 20 children have participated in the bullying, one as young as 10 years.
Three children have apologized, said Yes. But Parks said a family sent a cease-and-desist letter after seeing their son in the security footage he posted on Facebook. The letter threatened her with a lawsuit if she did not retire.
As the sun began to set on a recent Thursday, Parks stood outside the Sisters’ home, where Loden Pass curves into Mocha Lane, gathering his troops. He was keeping a close eye on a group of teenagers biking along the trails of a hill overlooking the house.
“This is what we do all night,” Parks said. “We see children and say ‘OK, are they good or bad?’ Are they coming this way? “
Two neighbors wrapped in coats to protect themselves from the cold of the night, took flashlights and took their positions on the top of the hill near the house. Others took up the neighborhood.
“I am very grateful for my neighbors,” said Si.
In the two weeks or so since the volunteers have been guarding the home, the bullying has decreased, but the teens have not been completely deterred.
One night, a group threw rocks at Si and the volunteers who were chatting in the front garden. Sometimes they yell profanities, neighbors said.
The next day, as Chinese families around the world celebrated the Lantern Festival, hundreds of residents gathered on the lawn across the street to show their support.
People held red lanterns and watched a traditional lion dance performance. Young children danced and clapped to the beat of the music.
Min, the state senator, said the Si family should not have felt unsafe and unwelcome in their own home.
“The fact is, as we see tonight, we outnumbered them,” Min told the crowd.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
– Los Angeles Times
