The 13th annual LNY press conference jointly sponsored by SF SAFE and SFPD will take place in Visitacion Valley this year. Chief Gascón, Captain David Lazar (Ingleside), Captain Greg Suhr (Bayview) among others will be present.
Lunar New Year Crime Prevention and Public Safety Awareness Campaign Press Conference
DATE : Tuesday 2 /9/10
TIME: 1:30 pm
Leland Avenue @ Alpha St.
ANNUAL LUNAR NEW YEAR PUBLIC SAFETY CAMPAIGN BACKGROUND
Lunar New Year, commonly known as Chinese New Year or the Spring Festival, is the most celebrated annual holidays by the Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean.
The Celebrations of the Lunar New Year are filled with similar traditional customs that date back thousands of years. From cleaning and decorating houses, replenishing new household and personal items, participating in various games and contests to colorful parades of lion and dragon dances and lanterns, it is a time of celebration among the Asian communities.
The Lunar New Year Celebration in San Francisco sees many activities due to the demographic presence of the Chinese and other Asian communities. Merchants and their affiliated Business Associations will host dinner parties during the first month of the New Year to celebrate the Spring Festival and to wish themselves a successful year to come. The San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade is so popular that it is a significant annual attraction to local residents and tourists.
Crimes During the Lunar New Year On the other side of this happy occasion, the Asian and local criminals are also out to prey on potential victims. The season brings opportunity for extortion from small businesses, street robbery and pick-pocketing, burglary and home invasion, and tricks intended to rip off lucky monies from children’s red packets. Extortions during the Lunar New Year are commonplace within the Asian communities throughout the world. Taking advantage of the cultural custom, gangsters will present azalea and kumquat trees to the small business (retail stores, restaurants, mini grocery stores etc) owners, demanding protection money, from hundreds to thousands of dollars, threatening physical harm and property damage. Many of these cases go unreported for fear of revenge, lack of language capabilities or other cultural reasons.
SF SAFE and SFPD Roles In 1998, SF SAFE, acting on the instructions of Chief Fred Lau, SFPD, worked in cooperation with Captain John Goldberg of Central Station to map and plan a safety awareness campaign to educate the Asian merchants and break their silence. At that time, it was estimated that hundreds of cases occurred in our city. The campaign sought to address this extortion cycle in Chinatown and San Francisco. The campaign has since been officially sealed as an annual city-wide crime prevention event.
Each year, SF SAFE distributes some 2,800 crime prevention information packages to the Asian merchants, and 5,000 red packets containing safety tips to shoppers and residents. SF SAFE also reaches out to other sections of the Asian community via the mainstream and Asian media – newspapers, radio and television stations.
In 2008, only 7 cases of extortion were reported for the whole year. This result is very encouraging and SAFE has witnessed a growing willingness to cooperate with the police after years of public education efforts. It has also been noted that street crimes targeting against the Chinese community during the Lunar New Year are continuing to decline.
New Focus
Now that extortion cases have almost entirely been eradicated, SAFE has shifted the focus to be timely. Last year the focus of the campaign was Home Burglary Prevention and the press conferences were held in Chinatown and the Richmond District. This year, in light of the current concerns in Visitacion Valley, we plan to focus the campaign on Street Crimes and Muni Safety. We have been working with Captain Lazar to develop best practices for the community and new materials for the campaign.
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