Family, friends and New Yorkers made a grand gesture to a woman with a huge heart. Lucy Yang has more on a vigil held in Times Square for Michelle Go, who was killed after being shoved into subway train.
Organizers say Sunday's events in San Francisco, New York, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles are to honor victims, stand in solidarity and demand more attention to anti-Asian discrimination. But organizers say they also want to spark conversation in a community where both longtime Americans and newer immigrants are often lumped together as forever foreigners.
Vicha Ratanapakdee and his wife lived with Monthanus, their oldest daughter, her husband and the couple's two sons, now 9 and 12. He was on his usual morning walk when authorities say Antoine Watson, 19 years old at the time, charged at him and knocked him to the ground. Ratanapakdee died two days later, never regaining consciousness.
San Francisco's district attorney, Chesa Boudin, has charged Watson, who is Black, with murder and elder abuse but not with a hate crime, frustrating the family. Watson's attorney, Sliman Nawabi, has said his client was not motivated by race, and the assault stemmed from a mental-health breakdown. The brutal attack on Ratanapakdee, caught on surveillance video, has galvanized Thai immigrants, said Chanchanit Martorell, executive director of the Thai Community Development Center in Los Angeles, which is participating in Sunday's rally. His killing, and the overwhelming support from other Asian American communities, has made them rethink their place in the United States, she said.
You know which groups are most responsible for this barbaric act. The low lives.
It should be held outside of yours and the other news stations' buildings. You're the ones ignoring who the threat is. You avoid posting photos of the attackers as long as you can. You are part of the problem.