Brooklyn Campaign Gives Asian-American NYers Free Safety Alarms

BROOKLYN, NY — In the days after eight women — six of Asian descent — were killed in an Atlanta shooting rampage, Carolyn Kang was afraid to walk the streets of her native New York City.

Attacked herself on the subway last year, Kang would put on a hat and sunglasses to get groceries, hoping that concealing her identity would protect her from the violent anti-Asian attacks she'd been watching escalate on the news.

"I felt extreme grief, pain, anger, and frustration. These women could've been my own mother," Kang told Patch. "All the trauma of the sexualized racism I had experienced growing up as an Asian-American girl rose to the surface."

That pain, and fear, didn't subside as the headlines and #StopAsianHate tags dwindled, Kang said, so she decided to turn it to action.

"I felt completely helpless, so I wanted to do something that could tangibly help my community," Kang said.

The result is a campaign to give free personal safety alarms to Asian Americans in New York City.

In less than a week, Kang, who lives in Greenpoint, had surpassed her $2,000 fundraising goal.

Requests for the alarms poured in by the hundreds — from victims of subway attacks afraid to go out by themselves, to adult children getting the alarms for their elderly parents, to students looking to feel safer on their commute home from school and nurses on the frontlines of the pandemic afraid of being attacked.

"The theme in all of the emails I’ve been receiving is the same—the AAPI community feels unsafe simply just existing right now," Kang said. "It is heartbreaking and it must stop."

The more than 300 requests have been so much that Kang has since run out of funds to fulfill them and is hoping to raise more donations.

She also hopes to donate a portion of the alarms to senior community centers and pharmacies in Chinatown and Flushing. The campaign has a specific focus on women, the elderly and the LGBTQ community, she said.

Kang's GoFundMe is among several initiatives across the country to support the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community amid the surge in hate crimes in the past year. There have been nearly 3,800 anti-Asian incidents between March 2020 and February 2021, most of which were targeted against women, according to the group Stop AAPI Hate.

The safety alarms, which let off a loud alarm sound to discourage attackers when activated, can hopefully make a small difference in combatting the hate, Kang said.

"It’s not perfect, but I feel a little more protected walking down the street at night," Kang said. "This can make a tangible difference in helping our AAPI community feel a little safer."

Find Kang's GoFundMe here. To request a safety alarm email aapisafetyalarms@gmail.com