The man who allegedly made anti-Asian remarks towards a woman in Astoria Tuesday (Twitter @mingx3)
Feb. 12, 2021 By Michael Dorgan
A video has emerged on Twitter of a man allegedly making vile anti-Asian remarks towards a woman in Astoria Tuesday.
The video appears to show a man following an Asian woman along the northeast corner of Broadway and 31st Street and repeatedly asking her: “Yo why do Asians eat dogs?”
The video was shot by “Ming,” a photographer of Asian descent, who posted it to her Twitter page Thursday.
It was retweeted by City Council Member Costa Constantinides Friday who described the incident as “totally unacceptable.”
“I’m so sorry that this happened to you,” Constantinides tweeted.
The NYPD said they have not received a complaint with regard to the incident.
Ming was in the area recording manholes exploding and was attempting to leave the scene,” she wrote on social media.
“Then suddenly, this random guy comes up to me out of nowhere, with no mask covering his mouth, repeatedly asking me: “Yo why do Chinese people eat dogs?” she wrote.
The man then “aggressively” followed her around, Ming wrote.
The video captured Ming trying to evade the man and before she eventually escaped up subway steps.
@angryasianman “Yo why do Asians eat dogs?” the man kept repeating, aggressively following and coming at me. This was on Tuesday, 2/8/21 in Astoria next to Ditmars Blvd Station. pic.twitter.com/zqDYMggNll
— Ming? (@mingx3) February 11, 2021
Ming said she released the video to raise awareness surrounding anti-Asian hate crimes.
“There’s such a lack of media coverage on this and we are scared,” Ming wrote.
There were 27 reported hate crimes against Asians last year, according to a report by The City, citing NYPD data. The number is up dramatically from 2019, with there were just three incidents targeting Asians.
The NYPD created a new task force last year to investigate and combat the spike in Asian bias attacks. The Asian Hate Crime Task Force was filled with 25 Asian-American NYPD detectives who speak an array of Asian languages and dialects.
The NYPD said the team was also set up to encourage victims to come forward.
