Last month, a Bushwick activist named Peter Kerre volunteered to escort residents home after several women were attacked near the Morgan L subway station. Within days, over 200 volunteers had joined him, in a community initiative he now calls SafeWalks. 

This month, Kerre and his group have decided to respond to the wave of recent attacks against elderly Asian-Americans, witnessed across Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. 

On Saturday night, Kerre had gathered SafeWalks on Canal and Centre Street in Manhattan to discuss logistics for a new Chinatown-based operation. Their new goal was to create “a presence to express solidarity with the Asian community in light of hate attacks on elderly Asians, fueled by lies”.