White Plains, NY -- Racist violence is an intolerable affront to our values as Americans and to our shared humanity.

While we abhor all violence, we know, as Attorney General Merrick Garland said recently, that hate crimes have a particularly corrosive effect because they not only inflict pain and suffering on individuals and their families but also terror and fear on entire communities.

The increase of violence against Asians in our communities is troubling. According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, anti-Asian hate crime increased nearly 340 percent in 2021 compared to 2020.

That's why we are particularly disturbed by the vicious, unprovoked attack on one of our neighbors, a 67-year-old woman just entering a building in Yonkers, allegedly targeted because of her race. The video of the incident is horrific. We pray for her full and swift recovery. We salute the quick and decisive action of the Yonkers Police Department and Westchester County District Attorney in bringing charges in this case. We stand with the Asian community and offer our support in any way possible. And we say again -- as we must always say as often as we need to -- that hate has no home in Westchester County.