Since the pandemic began, violence and hate incidents directed at Asian Americans have surged across the nation and locally.
A family in Orange County experienced this first hand, as they were targeted and harassed at their Ladera Ranch home.
L.A. Times staff writer Hannah Fry wrote about their experience and how neighbors are stepping in to put an end to it. She joined Spectrum News 1 anchor Lisa McRee to explain.
The Si family moved to the Ladera Ranch neighborhood a few months ago from Corona and began getting harassed almost right away.
“The Si family had arrived from China four years ago and moved into their dream home. Shortly after they moved in, teenagers in the neighborhood started ringing their doorbells at kind of all hours of the day and night. They would pound on the door, and they would pound on the windows. Mr. Si spoke to some of his neighbors to let them know what was going on, and a lot of them said it was just ding dong ditch,” Fry said.
The attacks continued for months and started taking a toll on the Si family’s daily routine.
“The kids would be woken up, or dinner would be ruined. He and his wife stood guard in front of their home to try and keep the kids away. It was becoming a situation that was really untenable for them to continue living there. I got a sense that they felt very hopeless,” Fry continued.
At first, the teenagers would only pound at the Si family’s door and windows, but then the harassment got worse.
“The teenagers would yell racial slurs. They were told to go back to their country. At one point, rocks were thrown at Mr. Si when he was on his front lawn,” Fry added.
After being attacked with racial slurs, Mr. Si was afraid that things would escalate and reached out for help.
“In early February, Mr. Si approached a neighbor who had been friendly and asked her for help. Once she heard about everything that had gone on, she was livid over the situation and felt like she needed to do something. She got together with some other neighbors, and they created a sort of neighborhood watch for the family. So every night, they would sit or do laps around the neighborhood to make sure the kids were not coming to the door,” Fry said.
Neighbors estimate that from 15 to 20 children have participated in the harassment, one as young as 10. And Mr. Si had to come up with other solutions to protect his family.
“Once this started happening, Mr. Si installed a fence around his property—a $3000 wrought-iron fence. He put floodlights, so anytime you approach the house, it lights up. He also put cameras and a ring camera as his doorbell to try and capture these kids in the act. So, he gave these videos to his neighbor, and she put them on Facebook to identify the kids that were doing this and to recruit neighbors so they would see what is going on, and would be more likely to help.”