BOSTON — A Massachusetts man has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for threatening to kill a group of Asian Americans and repeatedly hitting one of them with his car. “This defendant targeted this man solely because he was Asian American. He yelled “go back to China” and threatened to kill them before repeatedly hitting one of them, a Vietnamese man, with his car. There had been a dramatic spike in verbal, physical and online attacks against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which was thought to have originated in China. “There are bad people who do bad things and good people that do a bad thing,” the attorney wrote in the sentencing memorandum.

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Persons: John Sullivan, Kristen Clarke, ”, Sullivan, “, China ”, Jodi Cohen, ” Cohen, “ Jack Sullivan, Jack Organizations: BOSTON, Justice Department’s Civil Rights, American, Justice Department, Prosecutors, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, FBI, FBI Boston Field Office, NBC Asian Locations: A Massachusetts, Quincy, China, Massachusetts, NBC Asian America