The San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA) today called on law enforcement authorities to investigate a possible bias motive for an attack on Millbrae City Councilman Anders Fung.
Fung reported that he was attacked with a concrete block in San Francisco’s Lands End on Saturday while he was walking with his family. He said the concrete was thrown from at least 20 feet above him. Councilman Fung was injured but is expected to make a full recovery. He is leaving it to law enforcement authorities to determine whether the attack was motivated by anti-Asian bias.
Fung said: “I’ll be happy to work with the US Attorney’s office should they be able to bring the perpetrator to justice, and properly categorize this incident, this crime that was committed against me. But what is undeniable in what happened, an AAPI elected official was assaulted yesterday.”
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“Given the disturbing spike in hate incidents targeting the AAPI community nationwide, this attack should be investigated with a possible bias motive in mind,” said CAIR-SFBA Executive Director Zahra Billoo. “All Americans should be free to go about their daily lives without fear of attack or harassment by bigots.”
She noted that CAIR-SFBA recently condemned an assault on an Asian-American man in Oakland and racist harassment targeting a South Bay couple and welcomed efforts by Santa Clara County officials to track and address hate crimes.
Last week, CAIR-SFBA welcomed hate crime charges against a man accused of assaulting Asian and Hispanic employees at a T-Mobile store in Cupertino.
Billoo said CAIR and the American Muslim community stand in solidarity with all those challenging anti-Asian hate, antisemitism, anti-Black racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and white supremacy.