“There were a lot of hate crimes against people of Asian descent even before COVID-19. Since the pandemic started, more of them have been showing up in the statistics. And I think there are actually a lot more hate crimes against Asians than those figures suggest. Crimes against Asians are often categorized as simple burglaries or robberies,” said Sarah Park, president of the Metro Atlanta chapter of the Korean American Coalition, a bipartisan group advocating the political rights of Korean Americans. Park’s schedule has been full since a shooting spree on March 16 that claimed the lives of eight people. Six of the victims were of Asian descent, and four were Korean Americans. On March 20, Park delivered a speech as a Korean American civil leader at a rally denouncing hate crimes against Asians that brought more than 3,000 people together in front of the Georgia State Capitol. Then on March 26, she personally led an online memorial service at a Korean American center in Atlanta for the shootings victims, with more than 4,000 people viewing the service over the internet. As the local liaison officer for Gwinnett County in Georgia, which has a population of close to a million people,
