SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) – Asian Americans in Salt Lake County say they are being targeted for their race.
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Many other Asian Americans in the Salt Lake Valley say they receive hate letters.
“The letter says that Asians must go back to where they came from, or that more Asians can be killed. Quite unsettling to be honest, ”said Sergeant Melody Cutler of the Unified Police Department.
Unified Police became involved when an Asian-owned company in Taylorsville received the letter in the mail on March 20.
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ABC4 does not name the company because they fear retaliation.
The owner shared the letter showing it was from Salt Lake.
“And the reality is, if there are multiple of these, there are multiple cases of this crime and we want to find that person, and each of these letters may have different evidence,” says Sgt. Messerschmied.
This marks the first case of Asian hatred that the Unified Police Department has dealt with since the pandemic began.
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Sgt. According to Cutler, the US postmaster is involved because the letter was sent. She also says that forensic science is searching the letter for evidence of any kind.
“These are threats to a group. It’s a hate crime. We take these things seriously, we want them to be reported, ”she says.
Dustin Watkins is a co-founder of Database. He says one of his brother’s employees and a personal friend of the family who is Vietnamese got one of the letters pushed under her door.
“For me, it was purposely shoved under their door and other people on their floor all got the same letter, all Asian races,” he says.
Watkins says the woman is doing better because of the support from the community.
“I think it’s important to stand up for what you believe in, and I think that a hate crime against any race, regardless of what it is, is not right.”
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Salt Lake City police say they have not reported any hate crimes in Asia in the past decade but know they are happening.
“We need people to report things. We need witnesses, we need victims who come forward because we don’t want anyone else to become a victim, ”says Detective Michael Ruff.
Local police say they are on high alert after seeing Asian attacks across the country. Many viewers wonder how to intervene.
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“We would always recommend that someone give us a call,” says Det. Frill. “That should be the first thing, let us come, be a good witness, you know if there’s a way to film it, you know that it kind of goes back to seeing something, saying something.”
Brittany Kiyoko Gleed, director of student wellness at the University of Utah, recommends three important things with viewer intervention.
Be direct
“Where you actually see the damage being done and you ask the person directly, ‘Are you okay? ‘You know, “can I support you?” Or, when you’re feeling comfortable and secure, actually call the behavior of the person making this comment, says Kiyoko Gleed. Let them know it’s wrong, it’s inappropriate, and it’s harmful.
Delegate roles
“Maybe you’re with someone else and you can create a buddy system where one of you stops the damage, the other person looks for the target and tries to separate the two if possible,” she says.
Distract
“You can pretend you’re the wrong friend and walk up to the person and let them know like, ‘Hey, I haven’t seen you in a while. How are you?’ Just interrupt the damage very quickly, in a very harmless way, ”she adds.
Kiyoko Gleed says each of these things are important when it comes to viewer intervention.
“What we know from research is that the more people witness an event, the less likely they are to actually intervene,” says Kiyoko Gleed. “We all have a responsibility to protect one another, be good neighbors, and the ability to practice onlookers’ intervention skills is part of that.”
Police officers tell ABC4 that it is up to the individual whether they want to be involved in a potential hate crime situation, but it is more important to call them to get officers there.
If you received any of the letters in this report, you will be asked to contact the Unified Police Department.
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