Chicago, Mar 28 (IANS): Thousands of people gathered at Chinatown Square in Chicago to protest against increasing crimes targeting persons of Asian descent and the savage killing of eight people, including six Asian women, in Atlanta on March 16.

People holding banners reading "Zero tolerance for racism", "Stop Asian Hate", "I stand with Asian-Americans", "We need justice", "Racial discrimination must end", flocked to Chinatown Square on Saturday afternoon, reports Xinhua news agency.

Local officials and district police chief, including President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners Toni Preckwinkle and Illinois State Representative Theresa Mah, joined them.

By organising the event, "we hope to be heard", and to unite local residents under a common goal of building a safer and better Chinese community in cooperation with the local government and the police, Grace Chan, executive director of the Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community (CBCAC), told Xinhua in an interview.

CBCAC co-hosted the protest with the Chinatown Security Foundation.

CBCAC and the Chinatown Security Foundation have also raised five demands for action at the event -- to increase public safety in Chinatown; take anti-Asian hate crimes seriously; create a website to report anti-Asian hate crimes and the outcome of these reports; pass the Teaching Equitable Asian American Community History (TEAACH) Act; and fund Asian American organizations that reach out to the Asian American community, with special focus on senior citizens.

Crimes against local residents in Chinatown in Chicago have increased sharply since 2020.

In February 2020, two Chinese men were shot to death in a parking lot in Chinatown.

Later in December, a 33-year-old man of Chinese descent was fatally shot while being carjacked in the Bridgeport neighbourhood bordering Chinatown.

There were also numerous carjacking, robberies and break-ins.