As the coronavirus pandemic continues, hate towards the Asian community increases and persists. In Los Angeles County, a woman named Hong Lee was getting lunch at a local Mexican restaurant when a man approached her and asked to have lunch together. Informing him that she was married, Lee turned him down, not knowing that he followed and started to hurl at her many sexist and racist remarks and insults. Lee managed to record a part of the interaction and reported the incident. The man then left and the police arrived. However, the police very quickly brushed off the occurrence by claiming that no crime has been committed and that nothing happened, despite the fact that it was evidently a case of hate crime as it targeted Lee for her race and gender. Seeing that the police did nothing to assist Lee, she took it upon herself to post the video on social media, where it went viral in mere hours.
One of the viewers of the video was Esther Lim. Lim has been working on a handbook titled “How to Report a Hate Crime” that she was distributing physically and over the internet to Asian Americans who may not know how to report these kinds of situations. Lim, who had never crossed paths with Lee, reached out to her and offered to help and connect her with law enforcement. The two then began to work together to raise awareness about the hate crimes that have occurred and how to confront and report them if ever necessary—an act that we should all follow.