a disturbing trend has emerged over the

last year

a nationwide surge of white supremacist

propaganda with new jersey

seeing one of the biggest increases it

comes in the form of flyers or graffiti

found in town cities and college

campuses

promoting racism and white power a new

report by the anti-defamation league

finds more than 300 incidents of

propaganda were reported in 2020

that's more than double the year before

what's more the new jersey european

heritage association was responsible

for 10 percent of the national total the

report comes in the wake of a mass

shooting at three atlanta area spas

where six of the eight victims were

women of asian descent

the man suspected of the killings has

been arrested and charged with eight

counts of murder

law enforcement say he claims the

attacks weren't driven by racism

but as hate crimes including those

against asian americans continue on the

rise

this latest attack has asian communities

at home

and across the country on high alert

raven santana reports as part of

exploring hate our ongoing series of

reports on anti-semitism racism

and extremism

i i'm scared i do have to say that i'm

very afraid 20 year old jersey city

resident hilda romero says she's been

living in fear after being the victim of

an anti-asian american attack last june

now one lady had pointed me out in the

crowd

and she said it's because of your people

your dirty ass people is why you know we

have to wear a mask and people are

suffering and dying

romero who is filipino and korean

descent says the incident which happened

at a black lives matter protest in

jersey city

still haunts her she proceeded to have a

big gulp in her hand

and it was coke she poured cherry coke

all over me

and i was shocked she also had

children and four children they threw

trash on me

because she told them to do so and i was

mortified

to where other people joined in egging

her on and i was

scared my only reaction was to run

this week's shooting near atlanta that

left six women of asian descent dead has

escalated fears in the asian-american

community

about the possibility of more hate

crimes which have already been on the

rise

the group stop aapi hate has been

tracking reports of discrimination

against asian americans and pacific

islanders since the start of the

pandemic

it's now locked 3 800 incidents

nationwide

including 59 in new jersey but the group

says those reports capture just a

fraction of the true numbers

while a law enforcement keeps aggregate

data

for things like major crimes

we also need to look at incidents that

don't result in a death or in a major

major consequence ronald chen is a

distinguished professor of law at

rutgers law school

and co-founder of jersey american

advocacy group jersey promise

chen says it's critical that asian

americans feel confident reporting hate

crimes

in order to prevent them we all lose out

if suddenly the community

itself loses confidence in the ability

of government i've experienced eight

different

times in which um i've been

verbally assaulted uh or felt physically

threatened

um by someone somerset resident casey

okamoto says reporting crimes can be

tricky

especially when they don't involve

assault the japanese american says in

many instances he felt hopeless

as he described not having any evidence

to provide to police

they did uh approach me and started

yelling out racial slurs

i did uh have to run about half a block

before

uh i saw a patrol car um again like i

said

it was a very much a he said she said

kind of incident people yelled at me

uh and told me to get away from them

because

they thought they were gonna get the

coronavirus uh

from me and and raven i'd like to i

would like to be able to tell you that i

that i stood stood strong and that i i

did what it needed to be done to hold

them accountable and said the right

words but i didn't

it's tough it really is kim stresses

that attacks on asian americans will not

stop

after the pandemic and there isn't one

solution to solve the problem

kim says tackling the issue will require

providing asian communities with

resources

so they feel safe and have an open line

of communication with law enforcement

so they feel confident reporting crimes

when they happen

for nj spotlight news i'm raven santana

major funding for exploring hate has

been provided by

the sylvia a and simon b poyta

programming endowment to fight

anti-semitism

the peter g peterson and joan ganz

cooney fund

and patty asquith-kenner