The Facts: Asian American Man attacked during a walk in the park - Cerritos, CA.
Updated: Jul 20, 2021
Thursday, June 10, 2021, an unquestionably changing day for a man from Cerritos, CA. During a walk in a park in Cerritos, CA, yet a small starting disturbance for 70-year-old Cesar Echano, a Filipino American. One day that he won't forget.
Strolling through Don Knabe Community Regional Park, bound to run into Echano and his wife is a man who yells at him: profanity, laughing, and an unpleasant "you don't belong here and go back to your country," Echano stated in an interview to Spectrum News. Confronted from the reason of why he looked at the suspect in a funny way, he silently acknowledges by keeping his head down.
So, from now, fight or flight? Echano chooses to take flight. The couple proceed on their way, back to the car. But, the man comes back, not to be outdone. The suspect violently rips open Echano's door and begins beating him, to which he "just saw fists" and that it "happened so quickly, " he mentions in his interview with Spectrum News.
With a missed chance to grab his phone and injured, his wife whisks him away and the suspect, unfortunately, takes his respective escape unscathed. The sheriff and EMT's arrive after a short call a few blocks away from the park, to the sheriff's department. Echano leaves the sudden and wretched, racially motivated incident with a swollen face and heavily bruised, bloodshot eye.
More than half a week later, his eye remains visibly injured and swollen due to this incident. Echano, hurt. Suspect, escaped. And the couple, traumatized. This is an experience of an Asian American, one out of many, who experienced violence because they were part of the AAPI population in the USA.
Once again, Echano says in the interview that he "want[s] to stop these hate crimes." Yet after his scarring experience he still recalls "I have forgiveness in my heart," but he "also want[s] justice."
Expressing my condolences to Cesar Echano - for the fact that he had to witness and fall victim to one of many similar AAPI incidents. AAπ wants to work towards that justice and want to make sure every story will be given a chance to be heard. Forgiveness, but also justice.
Read my opinion here: https://aapiawarenessproje.wixsite.com/my-site/post/opinion-was-the-attack-on-an-asian-man-in-cerritos-racially-motivated
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