stop the violence: rally at san francisco city hall

If you're in San Francisco, concerned citizens are organizaing a rally in front of city hall tomorrow evening in reponse to recent attacks on Asian Americans in San Francisco and Oakland. You're invited to stand up and speak out against violence against the Asian American community. Here's more info:

Stop The Violence Against Asian Americans

Tuesday, May 4, 2010
6:00pm - 8:00pm
San Francisco City Hall

In response to recent attacks on and the deaths of Asian American Elderly in the San Francisco Southeast Corridor and Oakland, we are organizing a peaceful rally to call attention to the violence suffered by the Chinese and Asian American communities.

Join us at SF City Hall on Tuesday, May 4 @ 6pm to Stop Violence Against the Asian American community.

Speakers will include residents of the Southeast Corridor of San Francisco and leaders in the Asian American and African American communities, including Vincent Pan of Chinese for Affirmative Action, Dr. Joseph Marshall of the Omega Boys Club, Lateefah Simon of the Lawyers' Committee For Civil Rights, and representatives from the Chinese Progressive Association. Members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors have been invited to speak about the City’s response and support. All speeches will be concurrently translated to Cantonese.

The Asian American community has been silent for too long. We must make our voices heard, directly address neighborhood safety, and unite with other communities of color to build a healthy and safe community.

Video cameras will be present to record testimonials and a note box will be passed around to allow victims of violence and community members to write down and share their experiences and thoughts.

San Francisco police has plans to increase foot patrols around the transit stops where attacks have occurred. That's great, but it's only going to go so far in preventing further violence. There has to be an understanding that the problem lies deeper -- Asian Americans are under assault. For more information about the rally, go to the Facebook event page here.