Comment A man has been charged with a bias crime or hate crime after prosecutors say he yelled racial slurs and physically assaulted a 5-year-old girl and her father, who is of Japanese descent, on Saturday on a bike path in Portland, Ore. . Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt announced in a statement Tuesday that Dylan Kesterson, 34, has been charged with harassment, assault and multiple felony counts of bias in the attack. Authorities said a father, mother and daughter from California were riding their bikes on the Eastbank Esplanade when Kesterson approached them, punching the father in the head and then hitting the child on the helmet he was wearing at the time. Kesterson was stopped when bystanders intervened, authorities said. The father, who has not been released, was hospitalized, but the girl was not injured. Kesterson was arrested not far from the scene. An attorney for Kesterson listed in court records did not immediately respond Wednesday morning to an email from The Washington Post seeking comment. The phone numbers listed for Kesterson were no longer in service. The long, ugly history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the US Under Oregon law, a bias crime — or hate crime — is defined as a crime in which a person “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causes bodily injury to another person because of that person’s perception of race, color, religion , the other’s gender identity. , sexual orientation, disability or national origin’. After his arrest Saturday, Kesterson was released from court on pretrial supervision and did not appear at his detention hearing Wednesday morning, said Elisabeth Shepard, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. A warrant has been issued for his arrest and the prosecutor will request that he be held without bail, Sheppard said. Portland City Commissioner Mingus Mapps (D), who called the incident “horrific” and “unacceptable,” expressed concern that Kesterson was released from jail the same day he was arrested. “We need to restore public safety to this city,” he said in a statement Wednesday to The Post. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) has since contacted the family, his office told The Post. “I am outraged and disgusted by the attack that took place on the Eastbank Esplanade,” he said in a statement. “We will not tolerate this type of behavior in our community.” The mayor added that he plans to ask the prosecutor to “seek the maximum penalty.” Covid fueled anti-Asian racism. Now older Asian Americans are under attack. Hate crimes against Asian Americans have increased in the United States since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Early last year, there was a spate of attacks in Northern California, including one in which an 84-year-old Thai man died after being pushed to the ground. Then a shooting at three Atlanta-area spas in March 2021 left eight dead, including six Asian women — sparking debate over whether the rampage, carried out by a white man, was a hate crime . The perpetrator, Robert Aaron Long, was sentenced to life in prison. Other incidents made headlines this year. In March, a 67-year-old Asian woman in New York was punched in the head and face more than 125 times, stomped on and spat on in what authorities called a “barbaric” hate crime. Surveillance video showed a man, identified by authorities as Tammel Esco, hitting the woman from behind, knocking her down and then continuing to hit her until she was crumpled to the ground. In May, the FBI opened a federal hate crime investigation into a shooting at an Asian salon in Dallas After Saturday’s attack in Portland, Commissioner Carmen Rubio, who oversees the city’s Office of Justice and Human Rights, called it a “terrifying event” and apologized to those who were victimized. “No one should ever fear for their safety – whether they visit our city or live here,” he tweeted.
