Laws
Against Asian-Americans
8/20/10
Philadelphia Inquirer: "Radnor family assaulted and robbed, possibly
because they are Asian,"
by Bonnie L. Cook
Lisa Lee, 17, thought she was dreaming at 3 a.m. Wednesday
when she opened her bedroom door in Radnor Township to find a stranger wearing a
bandanna across his face and holding a gun.
"Make a noise and I'll hurt you," said the
intruder, pointing the gun to her head.
Struggling to emerge from sleep, Lee heard the sound of a
scuffle downstairs and her father, Jei Lee, crying out in pain.
"I began crying and screaming, 'Don't hurt my dad,'
" she said Thursday during a doorstep interview in the three-generation
family's tree-lined neighborhood near Bryn Mawr Avenue and Glenwyn Road.
"Tell your dad to cooperate, or I'll hurt you," the
bandit said. "Give me the money."
And the family did, Lee said, handing over to four armed and
masked bandits $3,000 in cash from Jei Lee's wallet and $23,000 saved by Lee's
aunt in her room upstairs.
In all, the four men escaped with $26,000, a computer owned
by Lee's brother, the family's jewelry, and a 52-inch TV. The men were described
by police as wearing dark clothing with white or black-and-white bandannas, with
two more than six feet tall.
Jei Lee, who works at a dry cleaners in Wayne, was
pistol-whipped by one of the intruders and was bleeding profusely from a scalp
wound when officers arrived, his daughter said. He required treatment at a
nearby hospital, but was able to work Thursday.
John Chin, executive director of the Philadelphia Chinatown
Development Corp., said Thursday that Asian American business people were being
targeted by criminals, and that the activity seems to run in cycles.
"I'm not sure why they come in spurts, but they do, and
it's unfortunate. Part of the pattern is that the criminals follow the merchants
home," he said.
Investigators spent from 3:37 until 9 a.m. Wednesday
processing the house, but could find few clues because the intruders wore
gloves, Lee said.
Police Sgt. Andrew J. Block, of the Radnor investigations
unit, said by e-mail Thursday that no arrests had been made. No one saw a
fleeing vehicle, Block said, and the TV had not turned up.
He said that officers were trying to learn if the family was
targeted because it is Asian. All four robbers were described as African
American.
But Lisa Lee said she had been told by police that the
businesses her two uncles own - a dry cleaners at 15 W. Seventh St. in Chester,
and Brewers Outlet, a beer distributor at 48th and Spruce Streets - may have
been the link.
"If you have an OK-looking car and own a business, they
think you might have money," Lee said she was told, adding it was possible
the bandits followed her uncles home.
Other Asian families have been targeted for home invasions in
recent years. One resulted in the death of businessman Robert Chae, who
suffocated after being bound too tightly with duct tape by intruders on Jan. 9,
2009.
Chae, 58, of Montgomeryville, owned a beauty supply store in
Center City. He and his family were tied up and robbed of $15,000 to $20,000 in
cash, jewelry, and a bank book.
Seven people were arrested in connection with the crime. Two
are serving life prison sentences for second-degree murder, a third is serving
16 to 32 years, a fourth was acquitted, and the others, including Chae's nephew,
are awaiting sentencing.
Chin said part of the problem may be the economic downturn.
Another piece, he said, may be the reluctance of recent immigrant merchants to
call police when they see suspicious activity.
"Maybe these perpetrators know this," Chin said. In
Chinatown, neighborhood watches are being formed, but it's difficult to protect
merchants who are targeted at home, Chin said.
He called Wednesday's crime at the Lee home
"brazen."
"It's one thing to rob a house where nobody is
home," Chin said. "It's another thing to break into a house where
people are sleeping."
What struck Lisa Lee about the home invasion was the
viciousness of the attack and the way the men tied up frail family members with
telephone cords and corralled them into a room upstairs.
Lee would not disclose her family's names, but said that her
father, two uncles, aunt, brother, grandmother, and grandfather reside in the
house. Lee, who lives in Massachusetts with her mother, was visiting her
relatives.
The grandfather, 96, and the grandmother, who walks with a
three-point cane, were made to lie facedown on the floor with their hands tied
behind their backs,
Lee said. Her aunt and uncle were forced to lie face down on
a bed.
The bandits gained entry through an unlocked basement door
that opens to Lee's brother's apartment. Lee said the intruders tied her brother
up before casing the rest of the house.
As the bandits left, they made sure her aunt's and an uncle's
hands were tied loosely enough to allow them to get free and call for help, Lee
said. Once they were gone, her father crawled upstairs to help the others, Lee
said.
Asked if she had any advice in the wake of the attack, Lee
didn't hesitate.
"Lock your doors," she said. "You never know
what will happen anymore."
Radnor police are asking anyone with information to call
610-688-0503.
8/18/10 Delaware County, PA Daily Times "Asian business owners worried about robberies:
Upper Darby police are on alert after three Asian-American business owners were recently
targeted in home invasions,"
By Linda Reilly
Upper Darby — Asian-American business owners in the 69th Street area are again being
targeted by robbers who believe the entrepreneurs don’t use banks, police said.
Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood cited three home invasions involving owners of
shops on South 69th and Market streets.
“The most recent home invasion involving 69th Street stores occurred 2:30 a.m.
Aug. 8 in
Haverford,” Chitwood said.
Others were reported on the July 27 on Hampden Road, Upper Darby, and on July 22
in Ridley Township.
“All three are business owners in the 69th Street area,” Chitwood said.
The targeted victims are owners of a nail salon, restaurant and beer distributor.
According to an Asian-American beauty shop owner on 69th Street, most business owners
do not share information and only hear about the home invasions when it’s in the newspaper.
“I am aware robbers target Asian owners,” the proprietor said, asking her name not be used.
“I used to have a business in West Philadelphia for six years and never had a problem. It’s worse
here. I’m very afraid here. I’ve been here for nine months and it seems we are just targeted in
Delaware County.”
The woman utilizes a security door for patrons to enter and exit her store and had an alarm installed.
“I live in Drexel Hill and never drive straight to my house,” the woman said.
“And when I get there, I drive around the block to make sure I wasn’t followed and I look around
before I get out of the car. One time I did see a man sitting in a parked car. He ducked down when
I saw him.
“Robbers have experience. They’re crazy. We don’t save our money at home. We use
banks. I do see the cops constantly driving around here.”
An employee at the Asian Supermarket on South 69th Street reported a recent attempt at a
break-in at the store when an intruder smashed the front glass window and door.
The Indian, Pakistani and Bangladesh grocery store sells fruits, vegetables, candy, audio and
videotapes and household goods.
“I knew (about the home invasions),” Amarjit Singh said.
Singh added he was worried, citing a recent purse snatching on the street and damage to the
front window of the store.
Employees of the targeted beer distributor could only say they have told others about the home
invasion, but declined to talk about the incident.
A police alert was issued regarding the attacks against Asian business owners.
According to Chitwood, the Haverford incident involved owners of a beer distributor targeted in
the middle of the night by three to five black male intruders, with no further description.
“The victims are not sure if they were followed home,” Chitwood said. “It looks like the individuals
were targeted and more than likely followed home. Why else would that house be hit? The common
thread is they are all Asians and have businesses in the area of 69th Street.
6/14/10 The Anniston Star: "Alabama’s hate-crime rate,"
by our readers
The FBI says hate crime incidents per 100,000 for 2008 were 2.9 percent nationwide. New Jersey had the highest rate with 8.6, and Alabama had the lowest rate with 0.4. Are Alabama law enforcement agencies accurately reporting hate crimes?
For example, a recent incident in a Montgomery high school involved an Asian-American student and one or more African-American students. The high school is 94 percent African-American and very, very few students of Asian descent. If the incident involved an African-American student and white student in a school that was 94 percent white with very, very few African-Americans, then activists would be leading marches and giving interviews on national TV proclaiming “hate crime, hate crime.”
I am not convinced Alabama has the lowest hate crime rate in the United States. The incident cited above may be a hate crime but not reported as one.
Joe Boyett
Montgomery
5/16/10
Associated Press: "Attacks on Asian-Americans lead to racial tension,"
By Juliana Barbassa
San Francisco — Mrs. Cheng feels like she's living under
siege in her own home.
In January, an 83-year-old neighbor, also a Chinese
immigrant, was beaten into a coma. Days after he died in March, Mrs. Cheng, 53,
was attacked and pushed off a public transit platform, coming to minutes later
with front teeth knocked out and her mouth full of blood.
Both attacks happened within a block of her house. Now Mrs.
Cheng avoids going out, gets rides to work, and keeps her two daughters close to
home. She doesn't want to be identified for fear of retaliation, but she doesn't
want too much to be made of what happened to her, either. She repeatedly said
through a translator that she just wants everyone to live in peace.
Still, such attacks and the death of a Chinese immigrant from
San Francisco who was assaulted during a visit to Oakland have focused the anger
of Asian-Americans here, pushing them to vent in emotional rallies their
long-simmering perception that they are targets of racially motivated violence.
In all cases, the perpetrators were black teenagers, police said.
"This just sent them over the top. This is an activist
city, but this isn't an activist population at all," said Chia-Chi Li, one
of the organizers of a rally that drew hundreds of mostly older
Chinese-Americans to the steps of San Francisco City Hall bearing signs saying,
"Asians are not punching bags," and "Stop attacking the elders
and the vulnerable."
In this bastion of diversity and tolerance, the tension
between two of its minorities has become painful.
Although both groups have suffered discrimination over the
decades, the African-American community has been declining here faster than in
any other major city, while the Asian-American community has been growing,
partly due to immigration.
Now almost one in three San Franciscans is of Asian descent,
and many have moved into affordable, historically black neighborhoods.
Street violence in these neighborhoods is not new, say people
in the black community. They've suffered it for years. It just never drew much
attention, they said.
But seeing this violence serve as a wedge dividing two ethnic
minorities that have much more to gain from working together is particularly
hard, said Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, who represents the district where Mrs.
Cheng lives.
"It is so sad — in a wealthy city, in this city of St.
Francis that harbors everyone, to see that our children are in such distress,
our communities are in such distress," said Maxwell, who is
African-American.
Maxwell emphasized race was not a factor in the attacks —
the problem was the violence inflicted on a neighborhood.
"These kids need help. They are perpetrating violence
against all of us," she said. "How are we going to protect each other
and be responsible for each other?"
Police Chief George Gascon has played down the role of race
in the attacks, and pointed to statistics to show Asian Americans are not
disproportionately targeted in street crimes in San Francisco.
Asian Americans make up 30 percent of the city's population,
and account for 19 percent of the victims, Gason said. African Americans are 7
percent of the population, but make up 21 percent of victims.
These are crimes of opportunity, agreed Greg Suhr, police
captain of the Bayview district where Mrs. Cheng lives. Victims tend to be
vulnerable — the elderly, the young, women, "whoever's easiest."
Mrs. Cheng is about 4 feet 10 inches tall, he said. One of her assailants, a
15-year-old who was arrested and charged with felony assault, is 6 feet tall.
Thirty-two officers have been reassigned to foot patrol to
reduce violence in Mrs. Cheng's neighborhood and other areas where assaults have
occurred.
The department opened drop-in centers where Chinese-Americans
can find officers who speak their language and who will take reports of crimes
and offer information.
These measures were welcomed by Asians and blacks alike. The
announcement led to some frustration on the part of black residents, however,
who questioned the police chief at a community town hall on Wednesday about why
such measures weren't taken when African-Americans were the victims.
Some of the violence suffered by Asian-Americans in San
Francisco comes from the fact they are moving into neighborhoods that have
crime, said Rev. Amos Brown, pastor of the Third Baptist Church of San Francisco
and head of the city's NAACP chapter.
"Without diminishing the seriousness of what happened to
the Asian seniors — this has been happening to African-American seniors for a
long time," Brown said. "If you move into a community where there is
violence, you will be a victim."
In Mrs. Cheng's family, she says her elderly mother, her
13-year-old daughter, her husband, her brother and her sister have been mugged
over the last 10 years.
Racism is not a word thrown around carelessly in this
politically correct city. Accusations of that sort are hard for Mrs. Cheng to
square with the smiles she trades with her African-American neighbors of 20
years, or with her teenage daughter's black friends, who walk her home to keep
her safe.
When Asian-Americans moved into black neighborhoods like Mrs.
Cheng's, it may have created tensions that were exacerbated by economic stresses
and deep language and cultural barriers, experts say.
"From the African-American community's perspective, they
feel like they're being invaded by outsiders, and they want to defend their own
turf," said Edward Chang, a University of California, Irvine, professor who
has studied race relations. "It invites a sense of resentment."
The incidents have led community organizations to develop a
plan, as summer approaches, to involve as many kids as possible in jobs,
programs and community organizations.
San Francisco can't arrest its way out of this, said Joe
Marshall, president of the San Francisco Police Commission.
"You have kids that are hurt, who don't have adult
guidance. said Marshall, who is African-American, and directs Omega Boys Club,
an organization that steers teenagers away from street violence. "They take
that out on everybody. If you lock them up, they get out, do the same
thing."
Zhirui Wang — whose husband, Tian Sheng Yu, died in April
— is quietly calling for an end to violence.
The San Francisco painter and contractor hit his head on the
sidewalk after being punched in broad daylight in Oakland. Two 18-year-olds were
arrested with help from numerous witnesses, who were outraged by the attack.
"Everyone is asking what about justice? To the Yu
family, it is simple," she said through a translator. "True justice is
when there will be no more violence."
5/10/10 cbs5.com (San Francisco): "Bay Area Ex-Con Admits To Targeting
Asians,"
http://cbs5.com/local/asian.crime.targets.2.1686348.html
Recent attacks on Asian-Americans have stoked racial tensions
in some Bay Area communities. One African-American ex-con admits to targeting
Asians, but says he didn't do it out of hate.
Ananze Emenike talks about robbing Asians like it was no big
deal - during his teen years, it wasn't.
"We got busted for a hate crime, due to the fact that
when they linked us to the other robberies…they were 75-85 per cent
Asian," recalled Emenike.
Emenike's reign of terror ended with his arrest in 2007 at
the age of 17. Ananze said he once targeted Asians, but not because he had any
animosity toward his victims. He said he chose Asian victims due to a perception
that they carried a lot of money, wouldn't fight back, and wouldn't go to police
because of a language barrier.
"We would go places where we knew Asians would carry a
lot of money. Like for a good example Stonestown. That was a place we knew lots
of Asians came and spent a lot of money," he recalled.
Race played a part in Emenike's robberies. His victims were
targeted because of race, but for specific reasons, they presented for him a
crime of opportunity. We can't tell you about all such crimes, but it does offer
a different perspective to the debate.
Emenike has cleaned up his act, after spending time in
prison. He's now a video producer for the news agency Youth Outlook.
5/6/10 New America Media: "San Francisco's 'Black on Chinese' Violence Goes
Back Decades."
Commentary by Hubert V. Yee
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=dbcb572a81ab28c969cae0c307f408ae
African-American and Asian-American elected and appointed
officials have failed to address the growing racial tensions in southeast San
Francisco.
Growing up as an Asian American in southeast San Francisco
was not easy. Safety was a huge issue for all residents. We heard gunshots at
night and sirens wailing past our homes. Our neighbors and family members heard
stories about other neighbors and family members becoming victims of crimes by a
segment of the African-American community.
When I was 16, I was attacked by eight African Americans
while riding Muni’s 15 Third bus line. I was spit on. We fought. I was beaten
unconscious and remained out for a few seconds. I am reminded every day that I
was beaten for no apparent reason when I look in the mirror and see my scar.
My mother and father were also victims. I remember waking up
hearing my mom and dad screaming. I ran downstairs to see my mom and dad being
robbed and assaulted in front of our home by two African Americans.
These criminals target Asian Americans because we are seen as
weak, unorganized, foreign, and as “walking ATM machines.” We are racialized
in many of these instances of violence.
Our pain has not been felt or heard by so-called elected
representatives, black and Asian alike. Sophie Maxwell, who represents District
10 on the Board of Supervisors, has said little. Others, like Human Rights
Commissioner Yvonne Lee, have provided a false historical narrative of the
violence. At a recent commission meeting, Lee said these incidents have only
occurred in the “past several years.”
As a resident of the neighborhood for more than 25 years, I
disagree.
Supervisor David Chiu said on TV that these instances were
not racially motivated. I disagree. The violence is racial. Asian Americans are
seen as easy victims.
In order to heal, these “racialized” assumptions and
misperceptions about Asian Americans need to be acknowledged. We need community
development projects that involve multiracial interaction to dispel such racist
stereotypes. In 2005, I created a youth program, APIYLDP, that explored the
African-American experience and the Asian-American experience in District 10
with a group of multiracial youth and multiple nonprofits. Asian-American youth
learned about the African-American experience through community immersion,
fieldwork and research. Research conducted by youth documented racial
misunderstandings between Asian-American and African-American youth. Results
showed that the youth participating in this project better understood the
commonalities and the struggles the two communities shared.
Efforts to continue the dialogue between Asian-American and
African-American youth are hopeful solutions to the growing despair facing many
Asian Americans in the Bay View and Visitation Valley. We must focus on
developing our community through multiracial coalitions and continually hold
accountable not only District 10 Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, but also those who
claim to be our voice: Asian-American elected and appointed officials.
All San Francisco residents, including those in District 10,
should feel safe riding a bus, walking to school and being in their homes.
Hubert V. Yee has been a resident of San Francisco's District
10 for more than 25 years. As a community activist with a Master of Arts in
Asian American Studies, he has worked on multiple projects to develop healthier
community relations.
5/2/10 San Francisco Chronicle: "Dirty secret of black-on-Asian violence is
out,"
by C.W. Nevius
San Francisco's hidden truth is out. That's what community
organizer Carol Mo calls the realization that Asian residents are being targeted
for robberies, burglaries and intimidation by young black men.
"It is San Francisco's dirty little secret," said
Mo, a former Safety Network Community organizer in the Sunset District.
"It's not news to us."
Hundreds of people marched into Tuesday's Board of
Supervisors meeting to express their fear, frustration and outrage. But so far
the response has been disappointing, particularly from the San Francisco Police
Department. It seems intent on downplaying the role of race and its impact in
the community.
The recent incidents of black violence against Asians is the
perfect opportunity to open a dialogue about racism. Instead, they are
attempting to close the door.
City officials, including the Police Department, say these
assaults are part of a larger crime picture where gangs of kids take advantage
of a vulnerable group of small stature. But Mo participated in a 2008 survey by
the Police Department in which about 300 strong-arm robberies were analyzed.
"In 85 percent of the physical assault crimes, the victims were Asian and
the perpetrators were African American," she said.
The squeamishness city officials are experiencing about
confronting those numbers doesn't reflect well on anyone. No one is saying the
entire African American community is violent. But ignoring the legitimate anger
and frustration from Asians is disingenuous and unfair.
"We love San Francisco," said the Rev. Norman Fong,
a Presbyterian minister. "And we don't want to do anything to divide the
communities. But at the same time, our community is hurting and we feel like our
voices are not being heard."
Now that the Asian community has found its voice, city
leaders must listen and respond. What should be done? Here are a few
suggestions:
-- Understand the underlying conflict: This isn't just about
stealing iPods. There's a deep divide between the two communities. Edward Chang,
who lectures on civil unrest and race relations at UC Riverside, has studied the
contentious history of Korean-African American relations in Los Angeles when
Korean store owners moved into black neighborhoods.
"There was this sense of being invaded by someone
else," Chang said. "There was a sense of needing to protect and defend
their turf."
Another factor is the way the two cultures are perceived. Lee
Mun Wah, a Berkeley-based documentary filmmaker and diversity trainer for large
corporations, said there is resentment over how Asians are seen as "the
favored minority."
"We are pitted against each other," Wah said.
"African Americans sometimes say, 'We did all the work in civil rights, and
they get all the benefits.' "
-- Create a dialogue: As Chang said, "In order to build
trust, you must do things together." Wah suggests hiring black employees in
Asian stores. Board of Supervisors President David Chiu is pushing a summer
program to hire black and Asian youths to work together in community patrols.
-- Speak up: Chiu thinks the language barrier is a huge part
of the reason Asian victims do not report crimes. He stresses the need for
multilingual police officers.
But the Chinese community also needs to overcome its reticence to go to the
police. They are only making themselves more vulnerable
by being seen, as one officer put it, as "silent, vulnerable and unwilling
to fight back."
-- Listen to Mrs. Cheng: The 52-year-old woman was attacked
March 22 when a 15-year-old boy allegedly threw her off the Muni platform at
Third Street and Oakdale Avenue. She was injured, but she says she doesn't want
retribution.
"This is my simple request," she wrote in an e-mail
with the help of an interpreter. "That we can all live safely in our own
homes without being burglarized. I feel ashamed that this horrible bad luck has
happened to me. I only hope that my bad luck will fend off future bad luck
situations for other people."
And then she added one more thought.
"My neighbor is black," she said. "Though we
can't communicate much, he is a good person and a good friend. He often jokes
that he would teach me English and I Chinese to him."
That would be a great start - two people talking.
4/30/10 New York Times: "Attacks on Asians Highlight New Racial
Tensions,"
by Gerry Shih
The Chinese who had gathered at San Francisco’s City Hall
— several hundred of them, chanting and waving bilingual placards under a
persistent drizzle — were mad. Their words and signs said they felt under
attack, vulnerable, unheard by the police, city officials and even their own
community leaders.
Their grievances included these in March: An 83-year old
Chinese man beaten to death by five boys on a Bayview street and a 57-year-old
woman injured after being thrown off a Third Street Muni platform. On April 16,
two teenagers in Oakland assaulted Tian Sheng Yu, a 59-year-old Chinese
immigrant, in broad daylight. A punch knocked him to the ground; the fall killed
him.
Tammy Tan, the executive director of the Asian Pacific
American Community Center, watched as Chinese leaders took up the megaphone to
vent their fury in lilting Cantonese tones.
But something hung in midair, unspoken.
“We recommend our staff not to say it,” Ms. Tan said,
looking over the crowd. “We don’t want to escalate with African-Americans,
so we don’t say it.” Then she turned and faced a reporter. “But it is
racial,” she said. “That’s fact.”
It has been years since race relations in the Bay Area, where
diversity and tolerance are pillars of the civic religion, have taken such a
sharp turn for the worse.
The recent spate of highly publicized attacks on elderly
Asians by black teenagers has abruptly enhanced a longstanding perception among
Asians that they are disproportionately targets of racially motivated violence.
George Gascón, the San Francisco police chief, announced
last week the emergency deployment of 32 additional beat officers to the
Bayview-Visitación Valley neighborhood. Although “crime numbers have not gone
up,” Chief Gascón said in an interview, he wanted to address the
“tremendous amount of fear and apprehension” among Asians.
It is these historically black neighborhoods in southeast San
Francisco that have undergone the sharpest demographic changes in the city in
the past 20 years. Decades after Koreans transformed the Fillmore district from
what it once was — the “Harlem of the West,” its blocks lined by the
swaggering, smoky haunts of jazz lore — Chinese started moving to the Bayview
in large numbers.
Community leaders predict that the 2010 census will show the
Asian population, almost all Chinese, now making up 40 percent of the
Bayview’s residents and as many as 60 percent of Visitación Valley’s.
“At one point, one group may emerge because they’ve got
greater population and another group feels pushed out — feels like they
don’t have any voice anymore,” said the Rev. A. Cecil Williams of Glide
Memorial Church. “It involves a kind of power shift. That, of course, creates
some of the tension.”
The rapidly deteriorating climate has alarmed local leaders.
The president of the Board of Supervisors, David Chiu, noted that on Wednesday,
hundreds of Chinese lined up at a board meeting to tell stories of assaults and
intimidation, sometimes without clear motivation, by young African-Americans.
Two days later, a young black man, Amanze Emenike, 21, said
he was 12 when he heard older boys talking about why they singled out Asian and
Latino immigrants: they would not report the crime and had no gangs to back them
up. On Friday morning, on a Hunters Point hilltop with a breathtaking view of
the Bay, Mr. Emenike and his sister, Sherry Blunt, 22, recounted their
“spree” of crime against Asian and Latino immigrants several years ago.
By the time he was 15, Mr. Emenike said, he and his brother,
Armani Bolmer, would get up at 5 a.m. to rob Mexican day laborers who got off
the 23 Monterey bus from the Mission district.
They began to single out Chinese, he said, because they had
more money. In 2006, they stalked a Chinese man at the last Muni stop, robbed
him, and were arrested hours later.
Black civic leaders say they are troubled by the rash of
crimes and have repeatedly emerged at rallies alongside Chinese to show
solidarity. They also point out that black-on-black crime remains,
statistically, a far bigger problem.
But at these Chinese rallies and vigils, beneath the
megaphone-amplified din of positive rhetoric, there are worrying murmurs about
revenge, said Henry Der, who was the executive director of Chinese for
Affirmative Action, an influential Chinatown organization, for more than two
decades.
“I’m getting e-mails saying, ‘We need to retaliate,
it’s time we pick up arms,’ ”Mr. Der said. “And these are from grown,
supposedly responsible adults.”
At such a fraught time, leaders like Ms. Tan say they must
tread a narrow path between irresponsibly amplifying racial tensions and
dishonestly ignoring them.
Part of the frustration, some say, is fueled precisely by the
reluctance — both among Chinese and among San Franciscans generally — to
discuss such issues.
“Because San Francisco sees itself as very progressive,
people just don’t want to talk about these issues,” Mr. Der said. “But
that’s how people feel about it. You can’t argue it away.”
An alternative narrative, emerging from places like the Asian
Law Caucus or the Rev. Amos Brown of the local N.A.A.C.P. chapter, argues that
race played no role in the disparate attacks.
“They’re not the same perpetrators, and they’re not in
the same neighborhood,” Angela Chan of the caucus said. “So it’s not a
very advanced way of thinking about things.”
And the widow of Mr. Yu, Zhirui Wang, has repeatedly tried to
play down any racial overtones in the attack on him, the Chinese-language press
reported. “We are not separated by race or skin color,” she said in an
interview with The World Journal. “I hope everyone can treat others as family
members, so tragedy does not happen again.”
Mr. Emenike and his sister, Ms. Blunt, said the teenagers
involved in the recent attacks were following in his footsteps, as he had
followed older boys.
“It’s not ‘this is an Asian person let’s get him,’
” Mr. Emenike said. “It’s we thinking, ‘this Asian person is probably
carrying a large amount of money. And this is our neighborhood, this is our
home, why not?’ ”
But if the motivations were largely strategic, and not out of
unadulterated racial hatred, they were also influenced by complex emotions and a
wariness of change.
“I wake up and I’m hungry, my stomach growling,” Ms.
Blunt said. “Why am I just getting by when there’s this Asian walking out of
the house with a laptop going to the cafe?”
There is also the frustration at perceived prejudice by
Asians. Ms. Blunt still recalls a Chinese classmate in junior high ignoring her
requests to borrow a pencil.
“You approach them, and they just keep giving you the cold
shoulder,” Ms. Blunt said.
Last week, New America Media, a nonprofit coalition of ethnic
news media outlets, published an essay in which Mr. Emenike talked of his past.
It was soon translated and republished in both The Singtao Daily and The World
Journal, the two main Chinese-language newspapers.
Mr. Emenike is a proud new father with a 3-month-old son, so
he has “calmed down,” he said. He edits video for New America Media. He also
projects an almost avuncular sense of responsibility for the teenagers in his
neighborhood, and has come to terms — if grudgingly — with the changes
there.
“We tell them that’s so played out, there’s no use
anymore,” Mr. Emenike said. “They’re a part of the neighborhood, so it
don’t make no sense to rob them. Like you see them everyday.”
He paused, then added, “But that’s the way I guess it’s
supposed to be.”
4/29/10 San Francisco Chronicle: "Asian American attacks focus at City
Hall,"
by C.W. Nevius
On Tuesday, Mrs. Cheng came to City Hall for the first time
in the 20 years she's lived in the city. She intended to speak to the Board of
Supervisors through a translator, but she uttered just a few words before she
began sobbing uncontrollably.
On March 22, Cheng was checking on her daughter who was late
coming home on the bus. Standing on the Third and Oakdale Muni platform, she
recalls being grabbed from behind, choked and thrown off the 5-foot-high metro
stop and into the street.
The impact knocked her unconscious, shattered some of her
teeth and left her lying in the path of a bus. The attacker was identified as a
15-year-old African American boy who was charged with robbery. But he threw her
to the ground for no apparent reason.
Cheng was just one of the nearly 300 Asian Americans who
showed up at City Hall to share story after story about being assaulted, robbed
and intimidated. The two hours of testimony were tearful and angry. The need to
share their stories was triggered by Cheng's experience; the January beating
death of Huan Chen, 83, as he left a bus station at Third Street and Oakdale
Avenue; and Tian Sheng Yu, who died after he was punched by an 18-year-old
African American man in Oakland.
The stories highlighted what will be a difficult
conversation. The speakers said they felt they were being targeted by African
American teenage boys.
"I live in constant fear," Cheng wrote in her first
interview, which was conducted over e-mail. "I am afraid to go out any
more. I can't eat because I have no lower teeth. I have a big lump on the back
of my head ... I walk with a limp and need help to move around. I am afraid I
may lose my job. I came from China 20 years ago. I came because it offers its
people freedom, freedom of speech, good education. How would I have imagined I
would become a crime victim? I have lost confidence in America."
African Americans attacking Asians is a reality, said Young
Kong, a local talk radio show host on a Chinese language station.
"This is a hate crime," he said. "The
supervisors don't want to say it because they don't want to exacerbate the
tension. They are too chicken, too politically correct."
Cheng says she has a long-term relationship with her neighbor, who is black, and
the people who rushed to her aid were all African American. This isn't a race
war. But something is happening here.
"Let's face it, if older black men were being killed by
marauding groups of kids, we'd be going crazy," said Lynette Sweet, a
lifelong resident of District 10 and candidate for supervisor there. "We in
the black community have to take responsibility for our kids." The concern,
however, is that the discussion is too polarizing.
No truly great city can allow this. It is time to take a
break from debating boycotting Arizona for its immigration policy and look at
our own streets.
"This is the immigrant's voice not being heard in a city
of immigrants," said Yvonne Lee, a former police commissioner who helped
translate for Cheng. "This is years of frustration and fear that has burned
into anger."
Bayview police station Capt. Greg Suhr says the police are
responding, including adding 32 officers to his station to make Muni safer. But
he thinks the racial issue is clouding perceptions.
"We are seeing large kids or kids in large numbers
taking advantage of people of smaller stature," Suhr said. We have
Hispanics in the neighborhood who are targeted fairly frequently."
That may be, but Supervisor Carmen Chu said she's heard
stories of Asians being pushed on the bus, or insulted or spit on.
"Some of the perceptions are based on reality and some
on stereotypes," said Chu. "The reality is that they exist. This is
something we need to talk about."
Sweet believes there's potential for resolution. She sees
hope in the fact that when Cheng was injured, members of the black community
quickly identified the attacker, who has admitted the crime.
"People in the Asian community need to vent, and we need
to listen to them," Sweet said. "But I have found that after we give
people that opportunity, it very often turns into a chance for the community to
come together."
That would be great. Because right now the two sides couldn't
be much further apart.
C.W. Nevius' column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
4/28/10 San Francisco Public Press: "Asians denounce suspected hate
crimes,"
by Dana Sherne
Hundreds of Asian Americans joined city supervisors and Mayor
Gavin Newsom at a rally Tuesday to call for safer neighborhoods after a rash of
attacks against Asians, with much of the blame being focused on African
Americans.
Newsom promised a $100,000 reward for finding the youths who
assaulted and fatally injured Huan Chen on Jan. 24. Chen, an 83-year-old San
Francisco resident, was attacked after he left a bus stop at Third Street and
Oakdale Avenue on Jan. 24, according to police. He died on March 19.
After the rally, on the steps of City Hall, Asian Americans
who say they have been victims of racial violence addressed the supervisors,
some tearfully relating their stories and demanding action from the city.
“I feel I am not protected properly — I am afraid to go
out,” said one woman who was beaten by five black youths and declined to give
her name. “I felt like I lost my human rights when I was attacked. I ask that
city government paid more attention to the Asians.”
A 57-year-old Chinese woman was thrown off the Muni platform
at Third Street and Oakdale on March 22, police say. Not giving her name, she
spoke haltingly at the board meeting through her tears.
“I came to the U.S. because I hoped I would be able to have
a good life and achieve the American dream,” she said, echoing many other
speakers’ disillusionment with their adopted country.
Many in the audience called for increased police presence and
attention from the city government. Some of the speakers said the District 10
supervisor, Sophie Maxwell, was absent from this meeting. The ethnically diverse
district, includes Potrero Hill, Bayview Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley,
Silver Terrace, Dogpatch, Little Hollywood and the Portola districts.
Many of the speakers emphasized that these attacks were
alleged to have predominantly been committed by African Americans.
One woman spoke of how her image of African Americans changed
after she and a friend were surrounded and robbed by a couple of black
teenagers. Attending high school with blacks, she had never been afraid before,
but now had a different perspective.
“My entire image of African Americans changed. They could
be violent. They could be stealing things around,” she said. “I still can be
friends with them, but there’s just something bad in my heart that feels like
they could be dangerous sometimes.”
Other speakers addressed the need for dialogue and
communication between races.
“But I think we also need to understand that in America, race matters,” said
Vincent Pan, the executive director of the San Francisco-based advocacy group
Chinese for Affirmative Action. “It always matters, and the question is how we
make race matter in a way that moves us toward positive solutions as opposed to
negative solutions.”
Earlier Tuesday, at a press conference, Police Chief George
Gascon noted that there is not enough evidence to call these attacks hate
crimes. Instead, they might be “crimes of opportunity” and robberies.
But he acknowledged: “There was clearly race, and race
factors there.”
4/23/10 San Francisco Chronicle: "Oakland Street Killing: Shocking,"
by William Wong
I attended a vigil for Tian Sheng Yu in uptown Oakland
(California) on Friday (April 23). I didn't
know him, yet I was among about 100 people who gathered on a gorgeous spring
afternoon at
18th Street and Telegraph Avenue, a few steps away from the grand entrance of
beautifully
restored Fox Oakland Theater, a former movie house where I used to pay a quarter
to see
double-features (in the late 1940s and early 1950s!).
This was where Mr. Yu was beaten and later died in what has been
described as a random
attack by two 18-year-old men (boys?) exactly a week prior to the vigil.
The beating and subsequent death of Mr. Yu, who was 59 years old,
have shocked Oaklanders,
especially those of Chinese and Asian descent, but from the looks of those
attending the vigil,
people of all ethnic backgrounds and ages were emotionally affected by this
senseless street
violence.
Mr. Yu wasn't even an Oaklander. He was a home-care worker in San
Francisco, a fairly
recent immigrant from China.
He and his 27-year-old son were in uptown Oakland to shop for
coins.
Then, suddenly, violence struck when the two teenagers, who
happened to be African
American, first slugged the son, then later the father, Mr. Yu, who fell hard to
the pavement,
hitting his head. That was a fatal blow.
It was also another blow to Oakland's reputation. This city of
about 400,000 residents, just
across the bay from world famous San Francisco, has suffered for decades from
both an
inferiority complex and a negative regional and national image. Crime. Poverty.
Bad schools.
No there there.
What's ironic about the scene of Mr. Yu's beating is that uptown
Oakland, after so many
years bereft of life, has been gaining favor with the urban hip -- restoration
of the Fox
Oakland, trendy restaurants, a lively art-gallery scene, new condominium
developments.
Whether this killing, which happened in broad daylight, plunges
this part of Oakland back
down in the dumps is hard to know.
The killing also could potentially set back Oakland's chronic
struggle with copacetic race
relations.
Until World War II, Oakland was mostly a white city with a
no-nonsense, blue-collar,
can-do attitude. Its Asian, African American, and Mexican populations were
relatively
small. The war years brought in large numbers of African Americans to work the
shipyards.
After the war, many white middle class families started moving to
the burgeoning suburbs,
aided by new freeways that sliced through Oakland.
Gradually, Oakland's industrial base eroded, and its once robust
economy began to weaken.
Beginning in the late 1960s and continuing for the next several
decades, the Chinese and
other Asian population ballooned. So did its Latino population. The city became
much
blacker, browner, yellower.
It still is with a population that is about two-thirds non-white. I
wonder whether there's a direct
correlation between that fact and my native city's bad rep.
How people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds get along
is a hugely complex
matter that continues to befuddle Americans and recent immigrants, the election
of Barack
Obama as president notwithstanding.
In Oakland, we see the gamut -- from loving, genuine, sincere
cross-racial and cross-
cultural interactions to irrational, emotional, ignorant, stupid and bigoted
behavior.
So was this attack by two black teenagers, reportedly intoxicated
and raring for some
action, on a Chinese immigrant father and son racially motivated?
While that conclusion has been reached privately by some Oaklanders
of Chinese
descent, the reason the two youth beat up the son first, then the father, hasn't
yet been
revealed publicly, if it ever will be.
It is so tempting for anyone to say, yeah, those black guys beat up
the Yu father and son,
killing the father, because they were Asian, but so far, there's no proof or
evidence that
that was the case.
I know it's not a politically popular perspective, but I do wonder
why those two teenagers
behaved so badly and violently. Eighteen years is not a lot of years on Earth,
but apparently
they are enough to have poisoned those two young men in some way to take out
their rage
on innocent bystanders like Mr. Yu and his son.
Chinese immigrants, Chinese Americans and other Asian Americans
have been
especially shaken by the beatings and killing. They gathered by the hundreds at
two news
conferences held at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center in Chinatown in the days
following
the killing.
I doubt if many Oakland Chinese knew the Yu family. Nonetheless,
Mr. Yu's shocking death
touched a deep chord with many of them, especially the immigrant elderly,
because their
personal safety on the streets near Chinatown and downtown -- and now uptown --
Oakland
is a major worry.
At the vigil, where Bo Hing, an Oakland Buddhist monk, chanted a
lengthy prayer
(Mr. Yu was a Buddhist), some African American men and women were in the crowd,
along
with a typical Oakland multicultural mix, in tribute to Mr. Yu's memory and his
family's grief.
David Bonner, SEIU member, remembers Tian Sheng Yu. David
Bonner, an African
American and a member of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), spoke
to
the crowd. He said he was a mentor to Mr. and Mrs. Yu, both home-care workers
and
SEIU members in San Francisco. Chinese and black members of United
Healthcare
Workers, an SEIU affliate, stood in silence during the one-hour vigil, and they
have helped
raise thousands of dollars to support Mr. Yu's survivors.
I asked Mr. Bonner whether he thought the attack was racially
motivated. "It was not a
racial thing. It was so sad," he said.
4/20/10 San Francisco Chronicle: "S.F. man beaten in Oakland dies; suspects
held,"
by Henry K. Lee
Oakland -- A San Francisco man who was beaten on an Oakland
street died today, a day after two 18-year-old men were arrested on suspicion of
attacking him, police said.
Tian Sheng Yu, 59, had been in Oakland's Highland Hospital
since he was attacked Friday afternoon in the Uptown neighborhood after asking
the assailants why they had punched his son.
Doctors at the hospital took Yu off of life-support this
morning, said Carl Chan, an Oakland Chinatown organizer who has been working
with Yu's family.
"Mr. Yu is no longer with us. It truly is a tragic
loss," Chan told several hundred people who gathered at the Oakland Asian
Cultural Center for a rally originally scheduled to support Yu.
When Chan contacted Yu's hospital room today, he said,
"all I could hear was crying voices."
Police confirmed that Yu died at 11:27 a.m.
Alameda County prosecutors are expected to consider filing
murder charges against the two men arrested Monday in connection with the
attack.
Lavonte Drummer and Dominic Davis, both of Oakland, were
originally booked on suspicion of assault with force likely to cause great
bodily injury and battery causing great bodily injury.
Drummer turned himself in about 5 p.m. Monday at Oakland
police headquarters after a member of the clergy contacted investigators about
his surrender, said Lt. Brian Medeiros of the homicide detail.
Davis was arrested by Oakland police as he rode a bike near
Carleton and Sacramento streets in Berkeley at about 7:50 p.m. Monday. Davis,
who turned 18 on Saturday, the day after the attack, didn't give up immediately
but cooperated once he was stopped, police said.
"He knew he was on video, that he was on the news,"
Medeiros said.
Medeiros would not disclose a motive for the attack but noted
that both men have previous arrests as juveniles for robbery. Drummer lives on
Castro Street, just four blocks from the attack, public records show.
Both were identified with the help of tipsters, many of whom
were outraged by the attack on the 1800 block of Telegraph Avenue, a relatively
safe area increasingly known for its restaurants and nightclubs, authorities
said.
Video that police released over the weekend shows two young
men walking on the street near the time of the attack; investigators described
them as the suspects. Police said today that they have another video that shows
the actual assault of Yu.
"We had numerous people who called and gave us
information that led us to the capture of these suspects, and I'd like to
applaud this community," Police Chief Anthony Batts said at a news
conference.
Drummer is being held in lieu of $80,000 bail; Davis' bail is
$530,000. They could be arraigned as early as Thursday.
"There is no room in a civilized society for this kind
of maddening, violent assault upon human beings," said Mayor Ron Dellums,
who joined police officials at the news conference. "It should be beyond us
as people."
Yu and his son, 27-year-old Jin Cheng Yu, were beaten about 3
p.m. Friday as they headed to a coin and jewelry shop on Telegraph Avenue. The
younger Yu told The Chronicle that a pair of young men had approached him on the
sidewalk and punched him in the eye for no reason as his father parked his car.
He said he had then told his father about the attack.
The two men found the assailants, and the elder Yu, in
Chinese, asked them why they had attacked his son. The assailants hit the older
man in the face and he fell to the sidewalk, apparently injuring his head, his
son said.
Yu, who emigrated from China with his family in 1998, ran a
painting and remodeling business. His son studied biochemistry at UC Davis.
4/20/10
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo: "59-year-old Oakland assault victim dies,"
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=7396508

by Terry McSweeney and Cecilia Vega
Oakland, CA (KGO) -- ABC7 has learned from a family friend, that the 59-year-old San
Francisco man beaten during a brutal attack in Oakland Friday afternoon was taken off life
support earlier today and has died.
Two suspects have been arrested in the beating. They are accused of assaulting 27-year-old
Jin Cheng Yu and sending his father, 59-year-old Tiansheng Yu, to intensive care.
Both Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts thanked the
public Tuesday for their help brining the case to what is, in their opinion, resolution.
The two suspects, 18-year-old Lavonte Drummer and 18-year-old Dominic Davis, were both
shown on surveillance video previously released by the Oakland Police Department. Drummer
turned himself in to police around 5:00 Monday evening. Davis was caught in Berkeley Monday
night by a gang task force.
The assault occured around 3 p.m. Friday in front of the Fox Theater in the 1800 block of
Telegraph Avenue in Oakland's Uptown neighborhood. Tiansheng and his son were shopping
when Jin was attacked. Tiansheng stood up for his son and in turn was beaten and sustained
a serious head injury.
"One lived very close to where the crime occurred," Lt. Brian Mediros told reporters Tuesday
morning, referring to the suspects. "I cannot get into exact details of the interview because it
hasn't even been presented to the DA's office yet, but both have made admissions to the crime."
"What brings us to this moment is extraordinary cooperation on behalf of a number of residents
in this community who stepped up, who worked diligently with the Oakland Police Department,
to bring us to this moment," Mayor Dellums said.
The mayor and police chief both expressed their deepest regrets to the Yu family. The attack
occurred in broad daylight in what is known to be a safe part of Oakland.
Police say both suspects in the case have police records from when they were juveniles.
The headline on their rap sheets is robbery.
4/19/10 http://abclocal.go.com: "Two suspects arrested in vicious Oakland
assault,"
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=7396129
by Terry McSweeney
Oakland, CA (KGO) -- Two suspects have been arrested in the
beating of a
59-year-old San Francisco man who was assaulted while shopping with his son in
Oakland.
They are accused of assaulting 27-year-old Jin Cheng Yu and
sending his father,
59-year-old Tiansheng Yu, to intensive care.
Both Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and Oakland Police Chief
Anthony Batts thanked the
public Tuesday for their help brining the case to what is, in their opinion,
resolution.
The two suspects, 18-year-old Lavonte Drummer and 18-year-old
Dominic Davis, were
both shown on surveillance video previously released by the Oakland Police
Department.
Drummer turned himself in to police around 5:00 Monday evening. Davis was caught
in
Berkeley Monday night by a gang task force.
The beating occurred around 3 p.m. Friday in front of the Fox
Theater in the 1800 block
of Telegraph Avenue in Oakland's Uptown neighborhood. Tiansheng and his son
were
shopping when Jin was attacked. Tiansheng stood up for his son and in turn was
beaten
and sustained a serious head injury.
He was transported to Highland Hospital where he has remained
on life support. A family
spokesman says that barring a miracle, Yu may have to be taken off life support.
"One lived very close to where the crime occurred. Lived
off of Castro," Lt. Brian Mediros
told reporters Tuesday morning. "I cannot get into exact details of the
interview because it
hasn't even been presented to the DA's office yet, but both have made admissions
to the crime."
"What brings us to this moment is extraordinary
cooperation on behalf of a number of
residents in this community who stepped up, who worked diligently with the
Oakland Police
Department, to bring us to this moment," Mayor Dellums said.
The mayor and police chief both expressed their deepest
regrets to the Yu family. The
attack occurred in broad daylight in what is known to be a safe part of Oakland.
Police say both suspects in the case have police records from
when they were juveniles.
The headline on their rap sheets is robbery.
4/18/10
San Francisco Chronicle: “Son
describes Oakland assault that left father near death,”
A
59-year-old San Francisco man was on life support Saturday, a day after he was
assaulted in broad daylight in downtown Oakland trying to defend his son's honor
in what Mayor Ron Dellums called "a brutal and random attack."
Tian Sheng Yu was punched once in the mouth by an unknown
assailant and fell to the ground, hitting his head, said his son, Jin Cheng Yu,
27, who witnessed the blow.
"It happened so fast," the younger Yu said Saturday
afternoon in front of his home in San Francisco's Portola district, where he
stood still wearing pants splattered with blood, his left eye badly swollen from
the unprovoked blow. His father was listed in grave condition and was in
intensive care at an Oakland hospital.
Jin Cheng Yu, a recent graduate of UC Davis, said that he and
his father went to the 1800 block of Telegraph Avenue in Oakland around 3 p.m.
to check out coins in a jewelry shop when the attack occurred.
Tian Sheng Yu let his son out of the car while he went to
look for a parking place. Jin Cheng Yu started walking toward the shop when one
of two young men or teenagers walking toward him slugged him in the eye
"for no reason." Stunned, he caught up with his dad and told him what
had just happened.
"My father wanted to know why I didn't fight back,"
he said. "He took me to go look for them."
He said they found the suspected assailant and his companion
around the corner.
"My father asked them in Chinese - his English isn't
very good - 'Why do you beat my son?' They didn't say anything. Then one of them
punched my father in the mouth. He fell backwards to the ground."
The suspects then turned to the son. Jin Cheng Yu said they
punched him "four or five times." He said he tried to hit back, but
kept missing. Jin Cheng Yu had never been in a fight before.
Witnesses called 911. One of those callers was Jean Van
Fleet. She saw the attack through the front window of her bookstore,
Bibliomania, across the street. A passer-by yelled into the store for her to
call police, and when Van Fleet looked outside she thought she saw three young
men beating up someone else.
She was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher for only two or
three minutes she said, and when she turned back to the street, the young men
were gone and Yu was on the ground. His face was bloody and his body was
convulsing.
"I'm so sad he was beaten so badly," Van Fleet said
Saturday, adding that she never saw the faces of the young men involved in the
attack. "I kind of wish I'd gone over there with a broom and yelled at them
all to leave."
Tian Sheng Yu never got up from the sidewalk. He was rushed
by ambulance to a nearby hospital. His son said his chances for survival are
slim.
"It's all my fault," he said after a sleepless
night keeping vigil with his mother at the hospital. "I shouldn't have ever
told my father I was punched."
A motive for the attack has not been determined, according to
police. Jin Cheng Yu said he was not robbed.
Oakland police spokesman Jeff Thomason said the attack was
unprovoked.
"There was no warning, no explanation," Thomason
said. "The father did not walk up in a threatening manner. He just wanted
to know what happened. Any father would want to do that."
It was not the first time the family fell victim to crime. In
January, Tian Sheng Yu's wife was robbed on Third Street in San Francisco, her
son said.
The family emigrated from Beijing in 1998. Tian Sheng Yu
started a painting and remodeling business. His only child graduated from UC
Davis with a degree in biochemistry and had plans to go back to school.
"Now I don't know what I'm going to do," said Jin
Cheng Yu, who lives with his parents in a modest house on a dead-end street with
sweeping views of the East Bay. "I have to get a job and support my family.
I can never forgive myself for what happened."
Dellums issued a statement Friday, condemning the assault.
"The brutal and random attack this afternoon in broad
daylight on two innocent men was senseless and outrageous," Dellums said.
"Our hearts and prayers are with the father, now on life support, and his
loved ones who are also suffering."
The mayor said police have stepped up patrols in the uptown
and downtown business districts, and "they will pursue every lead until
those responsible for this violence are apprehended."
Police released surveillance video and still images of the
suspects and asked for the public's help in identifying them.
Thomason described the first assailant as a black male
teenager with a medium to dark complexion, short hair, 5 feet 7 inches tall,
weighing 120-130 pounds and wearing a black "Raiders-like jacket." He
described the second suspect as black male 17 to 20 years old with a medium to
dark complexion, short hair, 5 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing
150-160 pounds and wearing a maroon shirt.
The assault occurred on an open stretch of sidewalk next to
the Fox Theater, beneath a towering palm tree. The 1800 block of Telegraph
Avenue is in many ways an up-and-coming neighborhood, area business owners said,
with new restaurants and bars opening amid some of the older pawn shops and cash
checking storefronts.
Van Fleet said that in 15 years of running a used book
business on the corner of Telegraph and 19th Street, she's never felt unsafe.
Sometimes troubled people will walk into her store and yell or make a scene, but
she's always been able to handle them.
A few blocks down the street, Warren Taylor said he wold have
moved a long time ago if the neighborhood weren't safe. His psychology office is
just a couple of blocks from where the attack took place.
"It's a good neighborhood," Taylor said. "This
was really an unfortunate incident. But it could have happened anywhere."
John Hopes, a city worker who cleans and sweeps the streets
in the neighborhood six days a week, said he's never seen any kind of violence
in the area.
"Further downtown, sure," he said. "But around
here it's rare. People come here and do their business and just pass through.
Actually, they're really nice to me, always saying hi. It's really sad what
happened."
Oakland homicide investigators were called in to help with
the probe because of the severity of the assault, according to Oakland police
spokeswoman Holly Joshi. Anyone with information is asked to call (510)
238-3821.
Police
are looking for these two women, who they believe may be the pair who have
assaulted older Asian women in at least five incidents. It's believed the women
were joined by three men, who are also sought in the attacks.
Police released surveillance video of five possible suspects wanted in
connection with bias attacks on Asian women on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
Police released surveillance video of five possible suspects wanted in connection with bias attacks on Asian women on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
There's fear on the Lower East Side as police investigate an apparent series of hate crimes.
Five women were attacked, police say, and all the victims are Asian, but that's not the only coincidence.
Police say the five assaults on Asian women took place over the last ten days within a nine-block area right near the Williamsburg Bridge.
"I'm horrified, scared," neighbor Tiffany Tan said. "As long as you don't go near them, it's okay."
Police released a videotape showing five people they seek for questioning in connection with the assaults.
Police want to question two women captured by the surveillance video because they believe they may be the ones assaulting the victims. Police believe they are part of a gang of five, where the three men in the group watch the females commit the hate crimes.
The group was captured by surveillance cameras at 1:20 a.m. at the location of the first attack, in the Gompers Houses at 90 Pitt Street. The victim in that first assault on March 31 was a 50-year-old Asian woman.
Later the same day, at 9:20 p.m., police say a 60-year-old Asian woman was assaulted at the Baruch Houses, in the back of 577 FDR.
According to police, a 71-year-old Asian woman was then assaulted opposite 120 Baruch Drive, also at the Baruch Houses. And so was the next attack, on a 66-year-old Asian woman at 95 Baruch Drive.
The last attack, according to police, was on Monday in front of 247 Broadway at 11 p.m. The victim was a 68-year-old Asian woman.
"It's weird – this neighborhood is quiet," resident Ai Asa said. "The Hasids, the Spanish, the Asians, the blacks, we all live quietly here. They don't really have a problem."
"I'm absolutely horrified," said neighbor Angela Pires. "This is a very mixed neighborhood, we have a lot of ethnicities, it's very quiet."
"Why would anyone beat up old, Asian women? It's ridiculous," said neighbor Ayana Carey.
Police say the group physically assaults the women, but they don't take any money or property.
Because all the victims are Asian, the NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force has been called in to investigate.
4/9/10 New York Post: "Alleged Hate Crimes Against Asians: Young
suspects are accused of attacking
elderly Asians in downtown Manhattan." Watch video
http://www.nypost.com/video?vxSiteId=fe3e21a8-49f1-4cec-9ba5-cfe372fa6572&vxChannel=PostTopFilmStrip&vxClipId=1458_907418&vxBitrate=700
1/8/10
NJ.com: "Three men, suspected of targeting Asian households, indicted for attempted burglary in Watchung and Parsippany,"
by Independent Press
Somerville — A Somerset County Grand Jury on Wednesday indicted two men from Queens, New York, and a third from Tampa, Florida, with conspiracy to commit burglary of homes in Parsippany and Watchung (Somerset County).
The attempted burglaries were similar in that the targeted homes were owned by people with Asian-sounding last names.
The trio, Carlos Gomez-Jansasoy, 35, and Rodrigo Lopez, 27, both of Queens, and Jhon J. Lopez, 29 of Tampa, are also suspected on burglarizing homes in Bridgewater (Somerset County).
The arrests on December 8, 2009, in Bridgewater, according to Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne Forrest, were the direct result of a coordinated investigation between law-enforcement agencies in Somerset and Morris counties of similar previous burglaries in which targeted homes were also owned by people with Asian-sounding surnames.
Police said the victims had received calls on their cellular or home telephones from individuals that they did not know on the same day that their respective homes were burglarized and entry into the homes was made in a similar way.
Police departments in both Bridgewater and Parsippany-Troy Hills intensified patrols in the areas that were targeted utilizing both marked and unmarked cars.
On December 8, 2009, while on patrol in an area of Bridgewater that had been targeted by the burglars, A Bridgewater police officer stopped a white Dodge van with Florida license plates driving through a residential area, investigators said.
Police said the van was occupied by Gomez-Jansasoy, Rodrigo Lopez and Jhon J. Lopez. After investigation at the scene, the three men were arrested and charged with offenses including possession of burglary tools and possession of a police scanner to facilitate the commission of a crime. The police scanner contained frequencies from both the Bridgewater and Parsippany-Troy Hills police departments.
Detectives from multiple jurisdictions were able to link cellular phones confiscated from the three men that were allegedly used to call a burglary victim shortly before his home was burglarized in Parsippany on December 7, 2009, authorities said. Additionally, on December 8, 2009, police identified that eight residences in Bridgewater and Watchung had been called using the confiscated phones within about 90 minutes preceding seizure of the phones.
Further, the location where the three suspects were stopped was within about one half mile of the Bridgewater homes that were called, police said. The Bridgewater and Watchung residences also belonged to individuals with Asian surnames.
The Grand Jury indictment included charges of conspiracy to commit burglary and possession of a police scanner to intercept emergency communications.
Gomez-Jansasoy and Jhon J. Lopez are currently being held in the Somerset County Jail in lieu of $25,000 cash bail. Rodrigo Lopez was released after posting bail.
The investigation is continuing.
12/23/2009 Denver Post: "Denver cops give 911-only cellphones to refugees worried about recent attacks,"
by Bruce Finley
Recent beatings of South Asian refugees have prompted Denver police to hand out cellphones to newcomers from abroad.
The hope is that the emergency-only phones, which require no payments, will help refugees reach paramedics and police to prevent future trouble, said Scott Snow, director of the Denver police Victim Assistance Unit.
"It gives a sense of security," Snow said.
A dozen refugee victims of recent attacks now carry police-issued phones. Police are talking with a potential corporate partner to supply 50 phones, he said. Ultimately, police aim to give phones to all refugees, along with orientation information and safety tips.
On Dec. 11, a group of men beat and robbed teenage refugees from Bhutan in east Denver, following them from an RTD bus, according to police.
Six were beaten, one requiring emergency-room treatment. The attack spread fear among refugees from Bhutan, Burma and elsewhere — who are concentrated in low-rent apartments and have been victims of previous robberies.
"If they kill me and my son, what will my daughter and wife do?" said Dambar Bhujel, father of an 18-year-old victim, who is now wary of letting his son go to school.
"At first, I was happy to come to the United States. After one year, I'm feeling very bad and I don't want to stay longer. But we can't go back to Bhutan and we can't go back to Nepal," Bhujel said. "They told us America was secure."
A police-issued cellphone to call 911 helps — but arresting the attackers would be better, he said.
The U.S. government granted the refugees special permission to enter the country as protection from persecution in Asia. Violence in Denver "is not what they expected," Snow said.
Police and social workers launching the cellphone initiative "aren't talking about putting $300 BlackBerrys into the hands of these people, but we want good equipment so people can count on it working," he said. "This is concrete. It gives immediate contact with emergency services. It's one step to building a bridge to a community that is traditionally underserved."
Police increased surveillance on RTD buses after the Dec. 11 attack, which followed several assaults and robberies reported in May.
This time when police arrived, about 50 refugees approached. Many spoke little English. "Several members of the group had been assaulted by a large group of black males," the report said.
No arrests have been made. "It's possible it is bias-motivated," police spokesman Lt. Ron Saunier said. Detectives "are still looking at that aspect of it."
Police also are looking into a possible retaliatory assault, Saunier said.
Officers recently attended a community meeting in a basement apartment where elders and a social worker expressed worries.
"You have older folks. Usually they don't speak the language. You have younger people. There's a feeling of fear. Uncertainty. 'What do we do?' " Denver District 3 Commander Kris Kroncke said. "Sometimes we've had incidents were people are hesitant to come forward."
Police previously have issued emergency-only cellphones, giving text and voice access to 911 dispatchers, to help low-income victims of domestic violence.
These efforts are appreciated, said Paul Stein, director of refugee services in the Colorado Department of Human Services. Federal funding for refugee resettlement is insufficient for safer apartments, Stein said.
"Affordability drives everything," he said. "The newest to arrive are the most vulnerable. Bullies will target who is available and who is the most vulnerable."
11/16/09
WCIA 3 News: "Threat Shakes Asian Community,"
by Amanda Evans
University of Illinois (Champaign) - A note was found in a
bathroom threatening a mass shooting of Asian students. It said it would happen
Monday. It's been a long, frustrating few weeks for the Asian American
community. The note was found here at Everitt lab. It's a place a lot of
students spend time and they met to talk about the threat tonight. Students from
all different communities throughout campus talked about their fears and how the
racially charged threat has affected them.
The U of I police department was also there. Officers were on
high alert today. Student and staff say it felt better to come together and talk
about this threat peacefully and brain storm about solutions.
"It's good that at a place like the u of i we always
have these types of meetings and kinda talk through it together work through it
as a community," said senior student Nathan Cheng. "This one is
particularly disturbing because of the violent threat," said David Chih,
Director of the Asian American Cultral Center.
The FBI is investigating. There are no suspects.
11/13/09 Washington Post: "Fairfax police charge 3 in probe of gold thefts: Wave of burglaries may have hit 26 homes of local South Asians,"
By Tom Jackman
Fairfax County police said Thursday that they have cracked a ring of burglars who were stealing only gold from South Asian homeowners, after they arrested two men and a woman from the New York City area in Centreville.
Police suspect the burglars hit 26 homes in Fairfax and three more in Loudoun County since January. Each time, the invaders disdained silver, gems and electronics, taking only gold jewelry, saris with gold threads and gold statues.
The victims were almost all South Asian and have said that their families traditionally pass 22-karat gold from generation to generation. Police said they believe gold was being stolen because it is selling at more than $1,000 an ounce. But they don't know how or why certain houses, mostly in the Fair Oaks, Reston and Centreville areas of western Fairfax, were targeted.
Despite the arrests, police did not recover any stolen property or personal documents, such as passports and green cards, that also were taken. They said the investigation has a long way to go.
"We don't know how extensive this may be or if we're looking for anybody else," Fairfax police spokeswoman Mary Ann Jennings said. "We're looking into whether more people were involved, why they came down here [from New York]. We've got a lot of investigating to do."
After their arrests Tuesday, the three suspects were charged with burglarizing four homes in the Fair Oaks area: on Highland Oaks Drive, Timber Oak Trail, Poplar Valley Court and Lady Somerset Lane. The defendants -- Francisco Gray, 39, of Nassau County and Dagoberto Soto-Ramirez, 27, and his wife, Melinda Soto, 33, both of Queens -- were charged with four counts of burglary, four counts of grand larceny and one count of conspiracy to commit burglary. They were being held Thursday without bond in the Fairfax jail.
The burglaries generated intense concern in the South Asian community, and three town hall-style meetings were held, first with elected officials and then, last month, with Fairfax Police Chief David M. Rohrer. Residents were pleased by the arrests.
"The community is excited," said Raman Kumar, whose home in Centreville was burglarized. "They are also thankful for the awareness the media put on this," because neighbors who learned of the burglaries might have provided information that led to the arrests.
A search warrant filed Thursday in Fairfax Circuit Court revealed that witnesses helped police identify two possible suspects: a Hispanic man in a blue jumpsuit or work uniform, appearing to be a maintenance or repair worker, and a Hispanic woman with pink- or red-tinted hair who knocked on doors soliciting plumbing work.
Some witnesses also told police that they had seen a small, blue sport-utility vehicle, possibly a Ford, parked in the neighborhoods where some of the break-ins occurred. The thefts often occurred during the day.
Police assembled a task force that included burglary detectives, bike patrol officers, intelligence officers and federal marshals, and the group's urgency intensified after a streak of six break-ins in two days last month.
About 30 task force members were on surveillance Tuesday when the break came, Jennings said.
According to an affidavit filed by Fairfax police Detective T.J. Harrington, Deputy U.S. Marshal Edgar Cline was working on the investigation and spotted a blue Ford Escape about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday on Cavalier Woods Lane, just south of Lee Highway. The SUV was being driven by a Hispanic male, and a Hispanic female was in the passenger seat, Harrington wrote. Cline began pursuing it.
The Escape made several U-turns, apparently trying to evade Cline, according to Harrington, but the marshal pulled the Escape over on Moore Road near Clifton Road. The woman in the front seat had red coloring in her hair, and the driver was wearing a dark blue work uniform, Harrington wrote. Another man was in the back.
According to the affidavit, police also found a laptop computer in the woman's lap; a portable Global Positioning System device between the SUV's front seats; a black plastic clipboard with a contractors' invoice on it; and a portable police scanner, tuned to Fairfax police frequencies, in the back seat. The Escape was rented in New York but had Virginia tags, Jennings said.
Jennings declined to say how investigators linked the suspects to the four Fair Oaks burglaries. She said police hoped the search of seized items such as the laptop computer would lead them to more property or more suspects
10/29/09
Philadelphia Inquirer: “Teen given up to 25 years for killing of elderly walker,”
By Joseph A. Slobodzian
An Oxford Circle teenager was sentenced this morning to 12
1/2 to 25 years in prison for jumping and killing an elderly man who was taking his
daily post-dinner walk.
Marcquis Walker-Williams, 19, received the sentence
from Common Pleas Court Judge Shelley Robins New for his Aug. 28 third-degree murder
conviction in the death of 69-year-old Kwok Wai-Ho.
Walker-Williams testified in his own defense during the
trial, calling his actions dumb but saying he never intended to rob or kill Ho.
This morning he repeated that assertion in a rambling 10-minute speech to the judge and Ho's family in the courtroom.
"We're Christians and our God asks us to forgive,"
Walker-Williams said, turning to the Ho family. "I'm asking you to forgive me."
Walker-Williams added that he could tell that the Ho
family did not believe he was sorry, adding, "I am sorry for what happened. I'm nervous, I'm scared, I'm lost, because I don't
know what may happen to me."
Ho's son, Thomas Ho, described his father's journey as
a penniless immigrant from China who built up a lunch-truck business catering to workers at the Food Distribution Center in South Philadelphia. He said his father was not just their family's foundation
but a force for good in the city's Chinese-American community.
"These senseless acts of violence have to stop," Ho
told the judge. "They have affected so many families and communities. It can easily happen to you and me as soon as we step out into the street."
According to trial testimony, Walker-Williams was among
a
group of teens walking on Greeby Street near Loretto Avenue on July 10, 2007 when he spotted Ho. As the group passed Ho, Walker-Williams
suggested to his friends that they "catch a body" - jump someone,
throw a punch and run.
Walker-Williams said he ran up behind Ho, wrapped his
arm around Ho's shoulders, below his neck, and pulled him back so Ho could not defend himself.
At that point, two neighbors began yelling at
Walker-Williams to stop and he released his hold and ran. Ho hit the concrete, struck his head on a curb and sustained a mortal injury.
Ho died a week later after his family decided to take
him off life support.
http://www.angryasianman.com/2009/10/traffic-agent-confrontation-caught-on.html
10/26/09 angryasianman.com: “Traffic agent confrontation caught on camera,”
This confrontation, between a NYPD traffic agent and a car
owner in New York's Chinatown, was caught camera earlier this month. According
to witnesses, the agent allegedly struck, cursed at, and made racist comments
against Qiang Nian Zhu, who says he was just trying to explain that he was
parked legally. However, it was Zhu
who ended up behind bars: Traffic Agent
Confrontation in Chinatown.
Security camera video shows the traffic agent charging at a
woman in who complained the agent was not being fair about a parking
ticket. The agent, Twana Chapman, was surrounded by other traffic agents and
then cursed at all the people around her, according to witnesses
She told them " 'You f------ Chinese, go back where you
came from. All of you f------ Chinese,' " according to one witness.
Mr. Zhu says on October 8 around 3:15 PM on Lafayette Street
in Manhattan, NYPD traffic agent Chapman began the process of ticketing Zhu's
parked car. He says he told her he still had one minute left on his NYC parking
receipt, displayed on his car's dashboard. He also told Chapman that his wife
was buying another ticket at that moment at the Munimeter.
Zhu says that the agent told him she would ticket him anyway.
The video shows Mr. Zhu putting his hand over the
registration sticker on his windshield so it cannot be scanned for a ticket.
Then Traffic Agent Chapman appears to hit him and is pulled back by another
traffic agent.
Mr. Zhu, a burly man, blocks then puts his hands back into
his sweatshirt so he could not, he says, be accused of striking the smaller Ms.
Chapman. Several people witnessed the attack and say the agent clearly struck
Mr. Zhu.
Chapman called for police officers, who arrested Zhu and
charged him with obstruction of governmental administration and harassment.
After spending 9 hours in jail, Zhu, who has no record, got a lawyer for this
criminal case which could send him to jail for a year.
Ironically, Zhu didn't even receive the parking ticket that
started the whole thing.
10/14/09
Boston Herald: "Four thugs charged in brutal banker beat down,"
By Marie Szaniszlo
Three reputed gangbangers were held on $50,000 bail yesterday
after they were accused of nearly stomping a State Street banker to death
because he refused to pay for their Chinatown dinner.
John Benoit and Jumoke Marshall, both 22, of Roxbury, and
Eric Wallace, 19, of Everett pleaded not guilty to the Mother’s Day beating
that left Joe Yoon Kang, 28, in the hospital for a month, permanently brain
damaged, prosecutors said.
A fourth suspect, Fianfranko Dy, now 16, was arraigned in
juvenile court on related assault charges and released to his parents. He is due
back in court Dec. 1.
Kang and an unidentified friend went to the New Golden Gate
Restaurant in Chinatown shortly before 2:30 a.m. on May 10 and were seated next
to six other young men they had never met, authorities said.
The victim and his friend stepped outside to smoke, Assistant
District Attorney John Lacey said, and when they returned the suspects demanded
they pick up their bill.
The victim and his friend refused and left, Lacey said, but
the group followed them to Tremont Street in the Theatre District and surrounded
them.
Dy then allegedly ran up to Kang, yelling the name of their
gang, “Skeet Skeet,” and sucker-punched him, knocking him unconscious,
according to court records.
Benoit stomped on the victim’s head about seven times with
his Timberland boots, Lacey said. Wallace kicked him several times, the
prosecutor added, and another member of the group kicked Kang once in the
midsection and stole his wallet at the direction of Benoit and Marshall.
The attack left Kang with seven skull fractures, two
broken eye sockets, bruised ribs, a broken nose, memory loss, headaches, mood
swings and a permanent loss of smell and taste, according to court records. He
is unable to work or care for himself and has moved out of state to live with
relatives, records say. His friend escaped, uninjured.

10/13/09
Boston Globe: “Man’s severe beating leads to four arrests,”
by Hannah McBride
Four people have been arrested in connection with the brutal
beating a South End man on Mother’s Day that left him with brain damage.
Roxbury residents John Benoit and Jumoke Marshall, both 22,
were arrested over the weekend, according to a joint statement from Boston
Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis and Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F.
Conley.
Police also arrested Everett resident Eric Wallace, 19, and a
16-year-old from Roxbury who will be charged as a juvenile because he was 15 at
the time of the attack, said Conley spokesman Jake Wark.
The men are all charged with mayhem, assault and battery with
a dangerous weapon, and unarmed robbery.
Police said the four were eating at the New Golden Gate
restaurant on Beach Street in Boston’s Chinatown neighborhood with the
29-year-old victim and his friend at 2:20 a.m. on May 10.
The victim and his friend stepped out to smoke cigarettes
before the group ordered. The other four ate most of the food before demanding
money for the check from the victim and his friend, according to reports.
The victim, who police would not name, allegedly refused and
left the restaurant with his friend.
The four followed the victim and his friend outside to demand
money a second time. Both refused again. The four then converged on them in
front of a closed lounge at 265 Tremont St., intending to rob them, according to
police reports.
One or more of the attackers stomped on the victim’s head a
half-dozen times, fracturing his skull and cracking his eye sockets before
stealing his wallet, the statement from Davis and Conley said. Police said the
victim’s friend fled the scene and they are looking for him to interview.
The victim was left with bruising and swelling to his brain,
memory loss, and permanent cognitive damage. He has moved out of state and is
living with relatives, Wark said. He did not know the extent of the victim’s
recovery at this time.
“Aside from the sheer brutality of the attack, what’s
disturbing here is that, as far as we know, the suspects and victim had no
connection prior to these events,’’ Conley said in a statement.
The four defendants will be appointed lawyers in Boston
Municipal Court today, Wark said. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in
prison.
8/2/09 Boston Globe: "Deliveryman dies after robbery: A life of work ends
in
Lawrence,"
By John M. Guilfoil
Thu Nguyen had endured a Vietnamese prison, a refugee camp,
and cancer, and after years of working two jobs to support his family, he was
preparing to retire in a couple of years.
Last Thursday, the 59-year-old
Methuen
resident was delivering food from a restaurant in
Lawrence
when he responded to a phony order. He was robbed of the food and found
unconscious with a fractured skull. He died the following day.
Yesterday, his son recounted Nguyen’s life - a story that
includes both an immigrant’s tale and a history lesson.
Phu Nguyen, 24, a recent graduate from the
University
of
Massachusetts
at
Amherst
, described a life that consisted almost entirely of work. Thu Nguyen worked to
get to this country. He worked to pay for his family to come here. He worked to
put two children through college. He worked to buy a house that he was rarely
home to enjoy.
Nguyen was a lieutenant in the South Vietnamese Army during
the Vietnam War, his son said, serving under his father, who was a colonel.
Nguyen met his wife in Ca Mao, on the southern tip of the peninsula.
After the war, the North Vietnamese Army swept through the
area, Phu Nguyen said; his father was detained and spent eight years in a prison
camp.
Thu Nguyen went to the
Philippines
after his release and spent several years in a refugee camp before the
United States
accepted him for immigration.
He came to this country in 1986 and worked various jobs,
eventually finding permanent work in the shipping department of New Balance
Athletic Shoe Inc. in 1991.
He learned English, worked days at New Balance, and delivered
Chinese food at night.
About a decade ago, Nguyen was diagnosed with cancer. He
underwent surgery and recovered, his son said.
Age and illness were catching up with him, however. While
still working his day job, he had cut back on his nightly deliveries, coming in
to help the Evergreen Chinese Restaurant when it was busy and when he was able.
He planned to retire from New Balance within the next two years and return to a
more peaceful
Vietnam
, his son said.
But he was working last Thursday night.
A city employee found Nguyen lying on the sidewalk of an
Osgood Street
housing complex around 8 p.m. The food he was delivering was gone, but his car,
wallet, cash, and other food orders remained.
Nguyen was taken to
Lawrence
General
Hospital
and later to
Tufts
Medical
Center
, where he died Friday of complications from a fractured skull.
Police Chief John J. Romero said police did not know how
Nguyen had been injured, whether he was struck or fell.
The robbery appeared to be part of a disturbing trend, Romero
said. More than a half-dozen times this year, someone has ordered food using a
random address and a prepaid cellphone.
The thief or thieves lie in waiting for the deliveryman to
arrive. When he does, they attack him and take the food.
No witnesses have come forward, he said, but police are
following promising leads.
“We expect to find the person or persons responsible,’’
he said.
Romero said the death was senseless.
“This is a case of a guy who’s just out there to make
money and bring it home to his family,’’ Romero said by phone yesterday.
“It’s tragic, just tragic.’’
“It’s an injustice,’’ Phu Nguyen said. “He worked
all his life, and he really had no chance to actually enjoy the fruits of his
labor. He worked so hard to save every penny, dime. This is so cruel.’’
7/4/09 www.sandiego6.com: "Serial Rape Suspect Dead in Jail; Victim Describes Her Attack
by Jeff Powers
San Diego - A Tierrasanta man accused of seven sexual assaults on women in San Diego over the past year died by hanging Friday in his cell at the San Diego Central Jail in an apparent suicide, according to the Medical Examiner's Office and sheriff's officials.
The body of Thomas James Parker, 39, was found hanging from a sheet around 7 a.m. by deputies conducting a security check, according to the coroner.
Deputies, the jail's medical staff, firefighters and paramedics attempted lifesaving measures, but he was soon pronounced dead, said San Diego sheriff's Sgt. Roy Frank.
Parker was not on suicide watch, said sheriff's Lt. Julie Sutton.
On Wednesday, Parker, was shackled, handcuffed and taken into police custody after trying to attack a Mission Valley woman in the garage of her home. But the 33-year-old woman -- an avid marathon runner -- fought back and chased Parker as he attempted to flee.
Parker was captured by police at a shopping center a few blocks away with help from passersbys, including two off-duty Border Patrol agents.
The Tierrasanta man faced many serious charges related to a string of attacks over the past year. The method of attack was usually the same. The suspect went in through the victim's garage door, threatened a female victim with a knife, demanded money, and tried to sexually attack the woman.
"Mr. Parker -- unless he has an identical twin -- is, in fact, the source of the DNA found in these cases," stated Mike Grubb, the San Diego Police Crime Lab Manager.
On Thursday, detectives say they compared DNA samples in three of the seven cases and it matches.
"The biological material from the assailant was either left on the victim herself on her clothing items," explained Grubb.
Captain Jim Collins with San Diego Police said there was another aspect of the attacks that was similar. "The suspect in all the cases was using cable ties or zip ties to restrain his victims and that's one of the factors that tied the cases together."
The 39-year old Tierrasanta father of two was to have been charged in relation to all seven cases.
Parker was the co-owner of "It's a Grind" Coffeehouse in Little Italy.
Police say there might be other victims, and police are asking them to come forward.
The prior assaults occurred in Carmel Valley, Tierrasanta, the College area and near UC San Diego, as well as Mission Valley.
Most of the victims were young Asian women, and in all of the attacks, the assailant demanded money before sexually assaulting the women, police said.
Getting the man responsible has been a high priority for the San Diego Police Department.
"Our efforts paid off yesterday when (the) victim decided she was going to fight back against her attacker," said SDPD Capt. Jim Collins.
Parker was scheduled to be arraigned Monday.
Christina Hennigan takes us through the frightening moments just after she pulled into her garage and was confronted by accused serial rapist Thomas Parker.
Neighbors Shocked
Parker's Tierrasanta neighbors are in disbelief. They say Parker -- known to his friends and family as Jim -- is thought of as a good, God-fearing, loving husband and father of two children.
Neighbors we talked to say they were in total shock. Sandra Drahman has called Parker her next door neighbor for many years. "I see him in the yard. We talk about kids and politics and things like that, and he just seems like a regular guy."
Joanne West also calls Parker her next door neighbor. "It's a bit alarming. You know if the allegations are true, it would be kind of scary to have somebody living next door who has done these things."
They describe Parker as the loving father of a five-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl.
Neighbors also tell us that Parker owns the "It's A Grind" coffee house in Little Italy. On a night when the area is bustling with activity, the coffee shop is shutdown. Inside, undercover detectives could be seen gathering evidence.
A customer named Patti frequents the coffee house. She, like many, can't believe the accusations. "The coffeehouse is a nice place to come to, and I am not going to think personally about the entire business, because of this one particular person."
Earlier Reports
Earlier Assaults
A serial rapist has attacked at least six Asian women in home invasion robberies and sexual assaults in San Diego, dating back to last June.
In April of this year, a young woman was attacked in the 6500 block of Reflection Drive near Mission Valley in the Tierrasanta area. The victim had her young child with her.
The woman had just returned home and taken her 18-month-old child inside the family's apartment before going back to her vehicle for other items when a man grabbed her from behind as she re-entered her home, Collins said.
He demanded cash at knifepoint, then sexually assaulted her before fleeing, according to Collins, who said the child was not hurt.
"I'm Asian myself," says Alice Blasser, who lives in the same neighborhood where the most recent attack occurred. "So it makes me, kind of like, scared."
The suspect is described as being white or Hispanic, around 30 years old and 5 feet 6 inches with a medium build.
In each case, the suspect got in through an open garage or front door, generally while the victim was carrying items into the home. All of the victims have been Asian women between the ages of 20 and 48, Collins said.
The first case occurred June 6 in the 6500 block of Montezuma Road, near San Diego State. Other assaults occurred Nov. 7 in the UC San Diego Mesa Housing area in the 9200 block of Regents Road; Jan. 16 at a house in the 5100 block of Camino Playa De Oro in Tierrasanta; Feb. 10 in the 10500 block of Whispering Hills Lane; and March 4 in the 3700 block of Carmel View Road.
6/10/09
New York
Post: "Two Teens Targeting Asians Arraigned for Murder,"
by Kirsten Fleming, Philip Messing and Andy Geller
Two Asian-hating teen pals, one the stepson of a cop, have
been busted for robbing and brutally beating and strangling a Chinese newspaper
executive, police said today.
Corey Azor, 16, of Queens, and Chris Levy, 17, of Harlem -
who targeted other Asians before - were arrested in with the murder of David
Kao, 49, whose body was found Saturday in Flushing.
After the slaying, they said they went joy riding in Kao's
car for two days.
Kao, who lived in
Elmhurst
, was a marketing executive at World Journal, the largest Chinese-language
daily newspaper in the
U.S.
His 21-year-old daughter attends college in
Taiwan
.
"He's a humble guy who brings happiness too
everybody," coworker James Yam said of Kao.
The teens, who met in junior high school, were charged with
second-degree murder, first- and second-degree robbery, and criminal possession
of stolen property.
They face 25 years to life if convicted.
They are expected to be charged with using similar tactics to
rob another Asian man last month.
Friends said Kao had eaten at a Korean restaurant with a
friend Friday evening.
He was dozing in the driver's seat of his sister's 2000 Lexus
SUV, which was double-parked in front of his ex-wife's
Flushing
home when the thugs spotted him at 1 a.m. Saturday, police said.
Azor - whose stepfather is assigned to NYPD's automotive unit
- and Levy broke into the car and put Kao into a choke hold and then dragged him
into the back seat.
"I continued to hold him in the headlock and punch him
in the face and then he stopped moving," court papers quote Levy as telling
detectives.
The deadly duo callously dumped his body on the street,
emptied his wallet of cash and spent the next two days joy riding with a gaggle
of teen friends, prosecutors said.
They were busted on Monday.
Yam said coworkers tried to call Kao on his cell phone
Saturday after he didn't show up to play badminton. After that, they called
cops.
Cops said Azor later confessed that that he, Levy and
17-year-old Keron Wilthshire robbed Jin Tong Yuan of $60 and his cell phone on
May 27.
They followed the victim into the elevator of a
Flushing
building and when he tried to run, Wiltshire put him in a headlock and Levy
held a silver pistol up Yuan's head, police said.
Wiltshire later claimed it was toy gun.
The robbery was captured on a surveillance camera and the
images used to track down the suspects, police said.
Azor, a student at Flushing HS, and Levy, a tenth grader at
Robert Kennedy HS, were held without bail in Kao's brutal murder.
Wilthshire, who attends Bryant has a prior assault arrest on
his rap sheet, was held on $75,000 bail in the Yuan robbery, for which he was
charged with first- and second-degree robbery and third-degree criminal
possession of stolen property.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown called Kao's slaying a
"senseless and brutal crime" that shows "complete disregard for
human life."
5/1/09 2009 Boulder Daily Camera: “
Boulder
police: Teens threatened to rape girl because she's Asian,”
by Vanessa Miller
Boulder, Colo. — Two Boulder middle school students have
been arrested on suspicion of harassment and a bias-motivated crime after police
said they called a 12-year-old girl and threatened to rape and kill her because
she's an Asian-American, according to Boulder police.
The 13-year-old boys — and a 10-year-old boy, who can't be
charged because of his age — are suspected of calling the girl's cell phone at
9 p.m. Monday and using explicit and violent language to describe raping her,
said police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley.
The girl hung up, Huntley said, and they called back and left
two messages telling her that she would die because of what they were going to
do to her.
"The girl answered the first call, but her parents
intercepted the other messages," Huntley said. "They didn't pick up
the phone, but they listened to the messages and shielded their daughter from
hearing them."
The messages included details about damaging the girl's
female organs, Huntley said.
"In the messages, they indicated that they wanted to
have sex with her because she was Asian," Huntley said. "That is the
basis for charging them with a bias-motivated crime."
The girl's parents reported the incident to police the next
day, Huntley said, and the suspects' parents brought them to
Boulder
County
's juvenile detention center Thursday. It's unclear whether the teenagers have
been released on bond to their parents or whether they're still at the center.
When contacted about the suspected phone calls, Huntley said,
the teenagers' parents said they knew "something was going on" because
they had been contacted by the parent of another child about a sexually-explicit
phone call. Huntley said it's unclear if that other child knew about the one
victim or if another person had been called.
Huntley said police can't pursue criminal charges against a
third suspect because he's 10, and a person must be older than 10 to face
criminal charges.
Police aren't releasing the name of the middle school in
Boulder
that the students attend because that might help to identify them, Huntley
said. Investigators have been working with the
Boulder
Valley
School District
, which can take its own disciplinary action.
"I think one of the hopes in filing criminal charges is
that if these boys can get support services, the courts can offer that,"
Huntley said.
Boulder
Valley
spokesman Briggs Gamblin said he can't comment
about the investigation or the school's response, except to say, "We are a
district that does not tolerate ethnic or racial intimidation of any kind."
2/13/09 Kingston Ontario Whig Standard: "Police call attack hate crime:
Three charged after Asian man assaulted,"
Three people, including a 17-year old girl, are charged in a
violent assault that Kingston Police say was a hate crime.
Police say a 20-year-old Asian man was walking home from the
Shoppers Drug Mart at Princess and Division streets at 11:30 p. m. Monday when
he was chased down by two women and a man.
The group had just been ejected from the Brass Pub where they had been drinking.
"They started making racial comments, telling him to get
out of the country," said Staff Sgt. Dan Mastin.
The victim continued walking toward Colborne and Chapman
streets and the trio followed.
One of the two women walked up to the victim and began
hitting him in the head and face with her purse.
The male attacker punched the man in the head and face at
least five times.
When he stopped, the young woman approached the victim.
"She said, 'Don't mind her,' and then she punched him in
the face," Mastin said.
A passerby who saw the attack tried to intervene but was met
with verbal, racial abuse. Mastin said the three assailants called the man
"the N word," although he is not black. They also told him to get out
of the country.
The passerby was not assaulted. Police were called and
officers arrived quickly and arrested the three attackers.
Mastin said the victim had a bloodied face but was not
seriously injured. He did not require medical treatment.
"He was very frightened," Mastin said.
Aaron Richards, 19, of
Kingston
, is charged with assault and breach of recognizance.
Amanda Garlick, 20, of
Kingston
, is charged with assault and two counts of breach of probation.
A 17-year-old
Kingston
girl who cannot be named is charged with assault and two counts of breach of
probation.
Police classified the incident as a hate crime, Mastin said.
Under provisions in the Criminal Code, a person convicted of
a crime in which there is "evidence that the offence was motivated by bias,
prejudice or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour,
religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or any
other similar factor," could face a stiffer penalty than a person convicted
of an assault without such elements present.
There are specific "hate crimes" in criminal law,
but they deal with a person who advocates or promotes genocide or who makes
public statements that incite hatred toward an identifiable group.
A mischief-related hate crime also was added to
Canada
's law that governs vandalism at places of worship.
A Statistics Canada study released last year shows that
Kingston
had the second- highest rate of hate crimes among
Canada
's largest urban areas in 2006.
There were 8.5 hate crimes per 100,000 people, the study
found.
Kingston Police have said the numbers are misleading because the department is
aggressive about classifying incidents as hate crimes while many other police
departments are not.
Agencies that work with immigrants to the
Kingston
area say discrimination and exclusion are common in
Kingston
, but overt hate crimes are rarely reported.
A 2004 study by Statistics Canada concluded that six out of
10 hate crimes are never reported to police.
Youth aged 12 to 17 are the most frequent perpetrators of
hate crimes.
1/16/09 Philadelphia Inquirer: “Police ask Asian Americans for help,”
by Joelle Farrell
Since at least November, police have investigated 15 cases in
which organized criminals targeted Asian American business owners in the
Philadelphia
area, often following them home and robbing them at gunpoint.
Yesterday, law enforcement officials urged Asian Americans to
call 911 if they fear they are being followed, and to report crimes to the
police. Police also asked community organizers to spread the word that
authorities will not try to have a crime victim deported.
"We're not about going after illegal immigrants. We're
not about going after illegal cash funds," State Police Capt. David Young
said. "I'm trying to save lives. . . . I'm asking the community to trust
us."
Area law enforcement agencies and the FBI held a meeting at
the Marple campus of
Delaware
County
Community College
, where they gave details on the attacks on Asian Americans and offered tips on
how people can protect themselves.
About two dozen people, mostly Asian Americans involved with
community outreach groups in
Philadelphia
and surrounding counties, attended the meeting. Those interviewed said there
was fear among Asian American business owners, some of whom are asking how to
obtain gun permits.
"You don't think people are going to follow you to your
house, but that's what people are doing here," said Douglas Rhee, a
pharmacist who also chairs a Korean American group that has advised Delaware
County District Attorney G. Michael Green.
"Are they easy targets?" asked Rahat N. Babar, a
lawyer who is part of the community-outreach committee of the Asian Pacific
American Bar Association of Pennsylvania. "These are some of the questions
we now are grappling with."
Police say some suspects believe Asian American business
owners carry large sums of money or stash cash in their homes because they don't
use banks, an assertion some of the community coordinators say is false.
But perception is reality for a thief, Young said.
"Whether that's true or not, it doesn't matter," he
said. "It's what the criminal element believes. It's what they're acting
on."
Most of the targeted robberies occurred in Southwest
Philadelphia, but at least five have been reported in
Delaware
County
. Last week in
Montgomery
County
, Robert Chae, 58, a well-known Korean American businessman, was killed at his
Montgomery
Township
home when three men met him in his driveway and stabbed him.
Most of the crimes have occurred Wednesday through Saturday
between 6 p.m. and midnight, with a few taking place between 1 and 3 a.m., Young
said.
The perpetrators often followed the victims to learn their
patterns, sometimes even calling their businesses to find out when they close.
"They're choosing their victims, then they're watching
their business, they're watching your activities, they're watching your
house," Young said. "We can lock up for stalking if we get the proper
information. Now, it's going to take a phone call."
Police have charged eight men with 12 of the crimes. The
murder of Chae remains under investigation, as do home invasions in Marple and
Collingdale.
The U.S. Attorney's Office is reviewing the cases and might
bring federal charges, including charges under hate-crime statutes, against some
of the men, Green said.
2/13/09 Kingston Ontario Whig Standard: "Police call attack hate crime: Three charged after Asian man assaulted,"
Three people, including a 17-year old girl, are charged in a violent assault that Kingston Police say was a hate crime.
Police say a 20-year-old Asian man was walking home from the Shoppers Drug Mart at Princess and Division streets at 11:30 p. m. Monday when he was chased down by two women and a man.
The group had just been ejected from the Brass Pub where they had been drinking.
"They started making racial comments, telling him to get out of the country," said Staff Sgt. Dan Mastin.
The victim continued walking toward Colborne and Chapman streets and the trio followed.
One of the two women walked up to the victim and began hitting him in the head and face with her purse.
The male attacker punched the man in the head and face at least five times.
When he stopped, the young woman approached the victim.
"She said, 'Don't mind her,' and then she punched him in the face," Mastin said.
A passerby who saw the attack tried to intervene but was met with verbal, racial abuse. Mastin said the three assailants called the man "the N word," although he is not black. They also told him to get out of the country.
The passerby was not assaulted. Police were called and officers arrived quickly and arrested the three attackers.
Mastin said the victim had a bloodied face but was not seriously injured. He did not require medical treatment.
"He was very frightened," Mastin said.
Aaron Richards, 19, of Kingston, is charged with assault and breach of recognizance.
Amanda Garlick, 20, of Kingston, is charged with assault and two counts of breach of probation.
A 17-year-old Kingston girl who cannot be named is charged with assault and two counts of breach of probation.
Police classified the incident as a hate crime, Mastin said.
Under provisions in the Criminal Code, a person convicted of a crime in which there is "evidence that the offence was motivated by bias, prejudice or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or any other similar factor," could face a stiffer penalty than a person convicted of an assault without such elements present.
There are specific "hate crimes" in criminal law, but they deal with a person who advocates or promotes genocide or who makes public statements that incite hatred toward an identifiable group.
A mischief-related hate crime also was added to Canada's law that governs vandalism at places of worship.
A Statistics Canada study released last year shows that Kingston had the second- highest rate of hate crimes among Canada's largest urban areas in 2006.
There were 8.5 hate crimes per 100,000 people, the study found. Kingston Police have said the numbers are misleading because the department is aggressive about classifying incidents as hate crimes while many other police departments are not.
Agencies that work with immigrants to the Kingston area say discrimination and exclusion are common in Kingston, but overt hate crimes are rarely reported.
A 2004 study by Statistics Canada concluded that six out of 10 hate crimes are never reported to police.
Youth aged 12 to 17 are the most frequent perpetrators of hate crimes.
1/17/09 New
America
Media: “Violence, Foreclosures Define Cambodian Community 20 Years After
School Shooting,”
By Eric Tang
Editor’s Note: Twenty years after a gunman opened fire on a
schoolyard of mostly Southeast Asian children in
Stockton
,
Calif., the Cambodian American community tries to heal from that violence, and the
larger issues affecting refugees to
America. Eric Tang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of African
American Studies and the Asian American Studies Program at the
University
of
Illinois. His forthcoming book is titled 'Unsettled:
America’s Refugees and the Struggle for a Just Resettlement.'
Stockton,
Calif.
-- “Going back to teach at the school was my way to letting go of it all,” said Rann Chun, a third-grade teacher at
Cleveland Elementary School
in
Stockton
,
Calif.
Exactly 20 years ago, on January 17, 1989, Chun was a
nine-year-old student at Cleveland when a lone gunman opened fire on the
schoolyard, killing five and injuring 30 before taking his own life. Chun’s
six-year-old sister, Ram Chun, was among those killed.
Before Columbine or Virginia Tech—indeed before “school
shooting” became familiar phraseology in American culture—there was the
Stockton
schoolyard incident.
Few outside of
Northern California
recall this tragedy in which 24-year-old gunman Edward Patrick Purdy emptied
105 shots from an AK-47 assault rifle into a schoolyard of approximately 450
schoolchildren. Fewer still recall that at the time of the shooting, Southeast
Asian refugee children comprised 70 percent of
Cleveland’s student body. Among the five fatalities, four were Cambodian
Americans—including Ram Chun—and one was a Vietnamese American. Their ages ranged from 6 to 9 years old. The
families of these children had recently resettled in
Stockton
in the wake of the Vietnam War and the Khmer Rouge atrocities in
Cambodia.
Twenty years ago, the tragedy brought forth divergent – if
not competing – analyses and lessons. Racial justice advocates demanded that
the attorney general consider the incident a hate crime. Others took the
occasion to call for stronger gun control laws. But for the mostly
Cambodian-American survivors, there was another lesson gleaned: The struggle for
peace and survival does not end with resettlement in the
United States
.
According to
Stockton
community leader Sovanna Koeurt, those who lost their children had to “either
let go and build something new and for the better or they didn’t survive.”
Chun’s father found this impossible to do. Though he had
had lost loved ones to the Khmer Rouge, he could not pull himself together after
the killing of his youngest daughter.
“He didn’t survive,” Chun said. Within 10 years of the
shooting, the father passed away, succumbing to deep depression and heavy
drinking.
Three years ago, Chun returned to Cleveland Elementary to
become a first-grade teacher—incidentally, this was the grade his sister was
in during the time of the shooting. He now teaches third grade.
“I went back to be role model for change, for a new
beginning,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave it behind as a place where my
life changed for the worse, but for the better.”
According to Koeurt, Chun’s story exemplifies not only
triumph over tragedy, but also the way in which a young man can beat the odds in a
community plagued by poverty and gang violence.
“Resettlement to
America
was just another verse, another phase, in our story of refugee survival,”
said Koueurt, who is the founding director of APSARA, a social service agency
and community development corporation created in the wake of the shooting. She
is referring to how life in the
United States
presented a new set of hardships and tragedies, and how refugees had to draw on
the skills from their past lives in order to survive. Indeed, the schoolyard
shooting has not been the only hurdle to overcome in the past 20 years.
Long Keo, 27, was among the 30 wounded during the shooting,
having sustained a bullet wound to the abdomen. He recalls multiple surgeries
throughout his childhood, going in and out of hospitals for years after the
incident. And yet, when he looks back on his adolescence, surviving the shooting
is not his defining struggle. Instead, he recalls the gang violence that gripped
Stockton
and nearly took his life on more than one occasion.
Several years ago, his living room was riddled with bullets
from a drive-by shooting. Then, this past summer, his mother learned that the family would be evicted from their home. They were renting from a
landlord who was on the brink of foreclosure. When I came to speak with the
family about the 20th anniversary of the shooting they, understandably, were
more interested in talking about their current housing crisis.
These smaller tragedies that have dotted the lives of
Stockton’s Cambodian Americans perhaps explains why, there is little fanfare surrounding the 20th anniversary of the shooting. This is not to say that
community members have become inured to violence and tragedy, but rather that there is a broader context of immigrant and refugee life in
which the shooting must be discussed.
Still, on Friday night the Children’s
Museum
of
Stockton
held a small, invitation-only memorial event for the victims and heroes of 20
years ago. Today, the city’s local paper, The Stockton Record, will run
a feature article looking back on the incident. And then there are those, like
Chun, who find ways to “honor my sister’s memory everyday.”
“I could have taught at another school in the district,”
said Chun. “But I chose to be here. Being here helps me let go of the tragedy, but
still hold on to her.”
Hate Crimes
2005-2008
Hate Crimes 1999-2004
Click here for the article
"A Timeline of Hate"