"My glasses got broken. I've had headache for a couple of days now because the hair was pulled and so my 5scalp was very tender."
Sue Young knows her 6physical injuries will heal, but the emotional scarring behind what happened to her last Thursday won't quickly 7fade away.
"It was just 8insults, after insults, after insults."
Those insults, Young says, came from this woman and her friends while all of them were riding on an F train. Police say they were making anti-9ethnic 10references toward Young and her family who were visiting from Nevada.
"And finally, my husband felt like he needed to 11step in and so he started to say 'Can you use some other words besides those?'"
She says after the girls 12realized they were being recorded by another passenger, Joanna Lynn, and one of them started 13attacking her.
"She ran over, 14grabbed me by the hair, threw me on the ground and started punching me several times."
Young 15couldn't stand to see Lynn getting attacked, so she says she got up and pushed one of the girls out of the way. Then that same teen attacked her. The 16Hate Crimes Task Force has now taken over this investigation. According to the NYPD, anti-Asian 17hate crimes are down 18significantly this year, from 64 in 2022 to 30 this year. Jo-Ann Yoo is president of the Asian American Federation, which started its 'Hope Against Hate' initiative, promoting situational 19awareness against hate.
"I think it's so great to see so many young people, non- Asians 20stepping up because they understand the 21shared commitment. We have to make sure that everybody is safe."
