Suspect in second Chinatown assault of the week facing ethnic intimidation charges

A man accused of using racist language and assaulting a 64-year-old man of Asian descent in Chinatown this week will face charges under Pennsylvania’s hate-crime law.

James J. Foster, 30, was charged Thursday with ethnic intimidation, terroristic threats, assault, and harassment after police said he shouted anti-Asian remarks at the victim at about 7:40 p.m. Tuesday on the 300 block of North 10th Street. The victim was not physically injured, police said.

Officials said they subdued Foster with a Taser, then transported him to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital for a mental health evaluation. Foster’s bail was set at $15,000 and he is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing April 22.

The alleged assault was the second time over the course of three days that someone attacked a person of Asian descent in Philadelphia’s Chinatown section.

On Sunday, a 27-year-old woman of Asian descent was hospitalized after a man walked up to her on a Chinatown sidewalk, hit her in the face, and walked away. Philadelphia police said no words were exchanged, and they arrested the man shortly after the attack. The 30-year-old suspect, who faces assault charges, is experiencing homelessness.

While the motivation in Sunday’s attack was unclear, the incidents in the city’s most prominent Asian American enclave have proved painful for some Philadelphians — especially those of East and Southeast Asian descent — amid a wave of anti-Asian hate incidents nationally.

Asian Americans for months have reported increasing levels of both verbal harassment and physical violence. Two elderly Asian American men were killed in California this year; a man went on a shooting rampage at Asian-owned businesses in the Atlanta area last month; and last week, a man kicked and stomped on a 65-year-old Filipino immigrant in New York City.

In Philadelphia, reports of anti-Asian American hate incidents tripled between 2019 and 2020.

Richard Ting, president of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Pennsylvania, said he has repeatedly heard concerns that police in some cases have not taken seriously the potential for a hate-based motivation in cases of harassment or assault against Asian Americans.

But he said what’s more important is that police understand the concern generally, and “whether or not you can prove the motivation was race-based hate doesn’t really matter. The fear is still real.”

“The pandemic obviously has caused a lot of pain for a lot of different people in a lot of different ways,” he said, “and that’s when people tend to act out on these hateful feelings.”

John Chin, executive director of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, said that he’s been in touch with Philadelphia police and that the CDC is organizing with community members to find volunteers to escort workers late at night. He said residents and business owners alike are “on high alert.”

“I was born and raised in Philadelphia, and I’ve never seen animus toward Asian Americans like this,” he said. “We’re living in a pandemic, and people are still trying to stay alive and figure out how to pay the bills, and this Asian hate is on top of what people are already challenged with.”