Overcoming the bystander effect: How to help others during a racist attack

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- From coast to coast, Asian Americans are facing attacks like no other time in recent years. In Los Angeles alone, the LAPD is reporting a jump in anti-Asian crimes by 114% in 2020.

For victims who have spoken to Eyewitness News, the pain is twofold. Victims deal with the initial attack and the lack of help that follows.

Tami Mitsumori-Miller is the chief clinical officer at Foothill Family, a mental health services organization in the San Gabriel Valley. She said when she was recently racially victimized, people around her pretended not to hear.

"There is no lonelier place to be than to be by yourself in that moment," she said.

Sakura Kokumai is an Olympic athlete who was verbally attacked by a man while training at a park in Orange earlier this year. She told Eyewitness News the park was full of people and no one did anything to help her.

RELATED: Man berates Asian American woman at busy OC park, bystanders fail to step in

In the latest in a disturbing spike in anti-Asian attacks, an Olympic athlete from Orange County was in a park training for the summer games when a man targeted her in an incident that she captured on video.

"It wasn't only about him verbally harassing and threatening me, it was more the people around that didn't bother to say or do anything that scared me the most," said Kokumai.

Psychologists call this the bystander effect. People assume others will help and when everyone passes on the responsibility, then no one steps in. That can be even more harmful for the victim.

"It's almost like you're simply being attacked based on who you are, it's not based on what you're doing. When it goes unnoticed it's almost like the aftermath is re-traumatizing," said Luwin Kwan, LMFT. Kwan is a licensed intensive services facilitator at Foothill Family.

"The importance of speaking up is to really be able to send a message to the person who is perpetuating that what they're doing isn't socially acceptable," reiterated Mitsumori-Miller.

So what can you do to help if you see someone being attacked? Call authorities immediately. Use your cell phone to record the incident. If possible, try to draw the suspect's attention away from the victim. But if you can't do any of that, be there for the victim after the fact.

"You don't have to be courageous to stand up against the person who is attacking, but at least, at the very least, check in with the person and let them know that you're there for them, that you saw what happened, that it was not OK," said Mitsumori-Miller.