SEATTLE — Seattle's police chief and former KING 5 journalist Lori Matsukawa have a message for the community following an uptick in reports of hate crime against Asian American communities across the United States.
NBC reports a Seattle woman was in line at a grocery store when she overheard another shopper say she and her child couldn't be in the same line as a Korean-American.
According to new data from an online reporting forum shared with NBC, in one week there were more than 650 instances of racist acts against the Asian American community in the United States.
"We will document and investigate every reported crime, even racist name-calling should be reported to police," said Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best in a video to the community.
Best and Matsukawa presented a clear message urging anyone experiencing a hate crime to report it by calling 911.
"Hate crimes have no place in our community, we are better than that Washington. We are all trying to deal with the COVID-19 public health crisis together," Matsukawa said in the video.
Bellevue police also asked members of the Asian American community to come forward and report any instances of harassment towards them due to the coronavirus.
“There's no place for that in our community,” Bellevue Police Chief Steve Mylett said. “The bigoted comments keep them to yourself. No one person in this country is to blame for COVID-19. We are in this together. COVID-19 does not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation or anything else.”