Assemblyman William Colton (D – Gravesend, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, and Dyker Heights) demands that the stabbing of an innocent Asian man is fully investigated as a hate crime. On Thursday, without any provocation, at around 6:30 pm a 36-year-old man was viciously attacked while walking New York City streets. He was approached from behind and stabbed in the back.

“This is becoming more and more obvious that after Mayor de Blasio had defunded the NYPD hate crime has increased in NYC tremendously. Just last week there were five attacks within two days on Asian-Americans throughout the five boroughs, and yesterday another heinous NYC stabbing has occurred. I believe that the Asian-American community is facing a hate crime crisis and we need to speak out and condemn these outrageous hate crimes,” Colton stated. 

“There has been a terrible rise in NYC for crimes against Jewish, Asian, and Muslim persons based upon hate for who they are, and such acts must be fully condemned. An act of hate against anyone is against everyone and violence motivated by a person’s origin, religion, gender or race is especially heinous to all of us. We need to do everything that is in our power to bring these heinous individuals to justice and hold them accountable to the fullest extent of the law. An attack against one of us is an attack against all of us,” Colton continued.

“I pray for the victim and his family and I demand that the attacker must be fully prosecuted. I commend our police officers for making a swift arrest and I demand the courts and judges ensure justice be done to protect society from such vicious crimes,” Colton added.