Chinatown Sentries: Patrol without the Politics
Chinatown Sentries’ goal is to restore safety and peace to SF Chinatown, through patrol, advocacy, coordination with other patrol groups, supportive agencies, and partnering with community leaders.
Funds are earmarked towards parking/food/uniforms for volunteers along with building a budget towards self-defense items and a ebike / e-scooter patrol.
We want you to know who we are. Who we were, we're angry women and men who didn't want to do this at all. We were strangers that met each other on a Facebook group chat of like minded souls who were tired of waiting for a government or police response to the not new, but increasingly frequent and vicious attacks on elders in SF Chinatown.
It’s never been safe being Asian on these streets. For 150 years, generations of AAPI families have fought and bled and struggled to make a home for ourselves here; and while there are success stories, many of us continue to be subject to poverty, victimization, trauma, racism, and ignorance of our suffering by most Americans, and most cruelly, by other members of our community.
In March 2020, as the country grappled with the COVID19 pandemic, We (the perpetual foreigners, the diseased, the disgusting, the different) Asian Americans found ourselves again in the spotlight of blame. As fear of the disease twisted itself into anger against us in San Francisco’s Chinatown; a volunteer patrol group formed. Chinatown Sentries’ leadership today comprises of co-founders and original members of the first group. We were strangers with differences in politics and backgrounds yet we were brought together by a duty to stand up and protect the most vulnerable of our community.
During the night of the George Floyd riots a year ago, we stood up against the looters who attacked our local businesses. For hours, we drove them off. Knowing that if we stood idly by there would never be a sense of peace or safety within Chinatown again.
The violence didn't stop yet we pressed each other to think up possible solutions; For over a year we patrolled without a name, a banner to fly, no pretty pictures on social media, paying for each other's wonton noodles and occasionally stealing parking spaces from each other. For over a year, we marched in Chinatown, and we saw and heard our friends/family start to lose hope, and expressed how they felt more unsafe, more angry, and more ashamed than ever, that their homes and lives were viewed as worthless targets.
Yet we still patrol, without press, without a penny in donations and limited respect and recognition in our community. While we have had glorious moments of chasing scumbags and de-escalating conflicts and enjoyed the warm smiles of grateful merchants and other residents, we have struggled seeing the continual attacks on our elders, our grocers, our jewelers, our families. We have heard their voices- afraid and tired and ashamed, and we want to do more, but we need your support as we can no longer self-finance and recruit and retain new committed members.
Help us with move towards uniting Chinatown in creating a sustainable safe environment for its residents and its visitors.
It’s scary being Asian on these streets, so let’s be brave together.
It’s not safe being Asian on these streets, so let’s be strong together.
It’s hard being Asian alone on these streets, so let’s be united together.
#quietnomore #notyourmodelminority #standup #beloud #aznpride
