A California active adult community has set up an anonymous tip line and is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person who sent an anti-Asian hate letter to a resident whose husband had just died.
Leisure World Seal Beach in Orange County, CA, posted a message on its website saying that it does not tolerate “acts of hate, racism and intolerance against Asian American and Pacific Islanders.” The action comes after 82-year-old resident Yong Choi received an anonymous “letter of hate and discrimination” on March 22 following the death of her 83-year-old husband.
Byong Choi died Feb. 24 from tuberculosis, but his wife and four daughters could not hold a funeral service until March 19 due to coronavirus restrictions. A few days later, just a week after an Atlanta spa shooting of eight people, including six Asian women, Yong Choi received a handwritten letter postmarked the same date as the funeral, according to a Washington Post article.
The Seal Beach Police Department has launched an investigation into what it calls an anti-Asian hate crime. The Leisure World retirement community posted on its website: “This malicious and egregious act of hate speech threatens our core values of racial equity and social justice.”
Golden Rain Foundation Executive Director Randy Ankeny said in a message on the website that the nonprofit homeowners association also is investigating the “hateful bias crime” by what it believes to be another resident. The Orange County District Attorney’s Office and federal investigators from the U.S. Postal Inspector’s Office also are involved in the investigation.
On Thursday, the Golden Rain Foundation announced that it has established an anonymous tip line and is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for “this act of hate and racism.”
Ankeny said he had also spoken to U.S. Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA), who along with U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA), is supporting a bipartisan resolution to condemn hate crimes against Asian-American and Pacific Islanders.
“I simply ask each of you — stand up for all your neighbors and stand up against hate,” Ankeny wrote.
