Get Wireless or Get Out
July 20, 2000
he advent of wireless e-commerce-its impact on the API business community
Imagine you are flying to Hong Kong on a business trip and as usual, time is of the essence. On the shuttle ride to your hotel, you pull out your wireless cell phone, connect to the hotel’s web page and register your information. Upon arrival, you walk into the hotel, pick up your key and go directly to your room, with extra time to prepare for that important business meeting.
Or suppose you are traveling in the United States on vacation with your family and you do not have access to a PC or laptop. You want to keep in close touch with your sick relative back in mainland China. No problem. You use your cell phone to get on the Internet and access a Web site that allows you to listen to voice messages from back home. The cost? The price of local phone call.
Quiet Storm Restaurant Faces Eviction
July 20, 2000
SF office space mania hits popular night spot at the Cannery
With smiles and the warm graciousness of an old friend, Ray Lee greets the regulars and tourists alike to the Quiet Storm Restaurant & Bar, as he checks on guests in the dining area and takes care of business in the kitchen. But, according to regulars and close friends, his smiles belie the tears they share at the thought of the near decade-old establishment closing its doors at the end of this month.
Letters to the Editor
July 20, 2000
Election 2000: Lesser of Two Evils
Dear Editor: From the perspective of an Asian Pacific Islander (API) voter, a clear presidential “champion” of API issues has yet to be determined. Furthermore, it becomes increasingly frustrating that the choices offered to us come down to picking the lesser of two evils.
Sure, the Democrats will woo the API community with their better-than-Republican reputation over minority issues. It is no secret that the Republicans have a long way to go to overcome their white-washed, “good old boys” stance on many key issues, including affirmative action and civil rights.
Despite the general inertia of the API community to the Democratic Party, it would be completely unjustifiable to state the Republicans are alone in dismissing their sincerity toward API concerns and issues. We only need to mention the following topics: Democrats/Buddhist fund-raising scandal, Wen-Ho Lee incarceration, Lawrence Livermore protest. In the words aptly stated by an African American colleague of mine regarding the same issue, the Democrats have taken our vote (African American, API, Latino, etc.) for granted.
Here in lies the point of frustration: Do we stick with Al Gore, who has repeatedly failed to support the API community in crucial moments, or do we go after George W., who at best could provide minimal advancements from a party who espouses a status quo platform? Either way, the API votes will not be taken seriously until a concerted effort is undertaken to bring our issues for presidential campaign debate. Until then, hold your breath until an API president holds office in the West Wing.
Jason Kercher
via the e-mail
Reaching Out to APIs
Editor’s Note: The following is an edited version of a letter sent to Courtni Pugh, director of Asian Pacific American Outreach for the Democratic National Convention, and to AsianWeek.
Dear Editor: To reach out to APIs on the heels of Norman Mineta’s appointment as Secretary of Commerce is undoubtedly the right strategy for the Democratic Party. However, his nomination can in no way offset the stench from the Clinton Administration’s handling of the Wen Ho Lee case.
Mineta is eminently qualified to serve as the Commerce Secretary. In appointing the best available person to serve, President Clinton is acting in the best interest of the country. Our appreciation for Mineta’s willingness to make the personal sacrifice and accept the appointment shouldn’t be any different from other Americans. We should be proud that the president has finally recognized one of our own, but any feeling of gratitude toward the president is inappropriate.
On the other hand, every API should resent and take the Wen Ho Lee case personally. Since he was fired in March 1999 and arrested in December 1999, every subsequent public disclosure on this case has confirmed that Lee is a victim of racial profiling. There can be no doubt that an Asian American scientist was made a sacrificial lamb in a political struggle between the Clinton Administration and conservative Republicans.
To truly reach out to the API community, a group that will prove pivotal in the presidential election-the Democratic National Committee, and presidential candidate Al Gore must take public positions that clearly state where they stand on the Wen Ho Lee case. To say that this case is now in the hands of the court won’t cut it. To publicly condemn Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, Notra Trulock, his former chief of internal security, and the FBI would be a start in the right direction.
George Koo
Mountain View, Calif.
Masaoka Deserves Recognition
Dear Editor: Regarding Christine Hanley’s July 13 article, “Dissenters Vow to Fight over Japanese American Monument,” I was dismayed to learn of the proposed exclusion of an inscription quoting Mike Masaoka, a Japanese American activist. As discussed in the article, Masaoka supported the McCarran-Walter Act of 1952, which extended U.S. citizenship to Japanese American immigrants, and reparations to Japanese Americans interned during World War II. Apparently, the major impetus for excluding Masaoka from this monument comes from his compliance with the U.S. government’s internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. If Masaoka were wrong, what should he have done in that situation?
It seems easy to criticize Masaoka. However, actions must be considered in their historical context. During World War II, any active Japanese American opposition to the internment would have only reinforced government, media, and public hysteria that Japanese Americans were collaborators with Japan. The U.S. government’s Munson Report and even the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover cleared Japanese Americans of any conspiracy. However, anti-Japanese sentiment overpowered reason. For example, Hawaiian Japanese farmers were falsely accused of creating crop patterns to direct Japanese bombers toward Hawaii’s military bases. Time magazines December 1941 article, entitled, “How to Tell Your Friends from Japs” did not help matters.
Hirabayashi vs. United States and Korematsu vs. United States were two famous U.S. court cases that challenged the legality of Japanese American internment. These cases failed, in part, because the Japanese American plaintiffs actively violated the interment law. In contrast, in Endo vs. United States, Mitsuye Endo first complied with the internment order, then filed a writ of habeas corpus against this illegal detainment. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Endo and ordered Endo’s release; shortly thereafter, the U.S. government ended Japanese American interment. These court cases reveal that complying with an unjust law then litigating the law is an effective way to create change. Therefore, it is unreasonable to criticize Masaoka for complying with an unjust law.
To exclude Masaoka from the monument is to deny his contribution to Japanese American history. While civil rights violations appear to be activities of the past, let us not forget the Rodney King beating, the LAPD Rampart Scandal, and the recent Philadelphia police beating of Thomas Jones. As Carl Sandberg said, “Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”
Michael Menaster
San Francisco
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The View from West 43rd Street
July 20, 2000
By Richard Rodriguez/PNS
According to the New York Times-this nation’s “newspaper of record,” as we are accustomed to call it-a discussion of U.S. race relations, even at this date, can only mean a discussion of the tensions between descendants of Europe and descendants of Africa.
Most Americans do not read the New York Times. There may be other tensions. But the Times is the newspaper that reflects and shapes elite liberal thinking, especially on the East Coast. So it is worth noting that, for the last six weeks, the Times has been running a series called “How Race is Lived in America,” concerned exclusively with how “whites” and “blacks” perceive one another.
How should we expect the omniscient New York Times to settle all scores? Time and space forbid! But here we are in the new century and it is clear to just about everyone that our country has become Latin and Asian; and miscegenation among races is increasing. With citizens from every corner, America is creating a global society, the first in the world.
The brown future is also our past. Americans, particularly African Americans -from Colin Powell to Tiger Woods-are speaking candidly about their mixed blood and a colonial America the history books never bothered to describe. I mean the marriage of the Indian and the African. And the black-and-white goings-on at Monticello.
Curiously, even while the Times was publishing front-page pieces on black-and-white separations in America, in its Arts and Leisure section one morning, the Times noticed that London is racially mixing-the city alive with Hindu Cockney.
But then New York is crazy about London this season. The New York Times will condescend to consider brown, as long as it posed in a British accent.
Then, on the 4th of July, the New York Times proclaimed that California will soon become the first “big state in the nation in which non-Hispanic whites will no longer be the majority.” To tell its readers what that might mean, the Times solicited the opinion of three white guys and one nervous gray. Governor Gray Davis was steadfast and refused to panic. After all, “leadership requires one to look on the bright side. . .”
These two brown sightings from London and California quickly dissipated. And the Times turned once again to serious concerns.
In article after article, whites were portrayed as at the very center of contemporary American life.
So with every article, white readers were reassured that they remain at the center of our national life-which is exactly where they expect to be.
So nothing was said in the Times about Korean/Mexican relations in Los Angeles or how (East Asian) Indians are faring in high-tech North Dallas or Haitian-American/African-American relations in Tampa. Any drama where whites are absent can be of no interest to the New York Times.
Hillary Clinton, who surely reads the New York Times, spoke of a vast right-wing conspiracy in America. The vast liberal conspiracy in America, by contrast, is a benign and relatively harmless business: Each spring, liberals love to give each other brotherhood awards and statuettes.
Surely the Times is in line for something for such breathtaking fatuousness: at the conclusion of its series, the Times found a majority of black and white Americans regard race relations to be “generally good.”
The only question that the New York Times did not ask African Americans is how much longer they will be seduced by liberal white flatteries. A dangerous seduction indeed, especially now, at a time of increasing tension and competition between African Americans and Hispanics for jobs and position.
I remember, several years ago, during one of the trials of O.J. Simpson, listening to the loud black-and-white conversations on television. I remember looking out the window and seeing the vast, silent brown city going about its business, oblivious.
Richard Rodriguez is an editor at PNS and the author of Days of Obligation: An Argument with my Mexican Father.
The Big Brother Treatment
July 20, 2000
Public life used to mean “politics.” You know, “running for office.” Now “public life” means auditioning for the cast of shows like Survivor and Big Brother. I confess. This week I watched “those shows” again. Both of them.
The campaign? Even with the Republican convention just a few weeks away, not much is happening. Not compared with the new “public life” of reality TV. And therein may lie a solution to our societal dilemma.
Before we start, I apologize to all you Equal Employment Opportunity officers out there for getting the quota count wrong last week. The Survivor cast had two African Americans, not one, the same as on Big Brother. But no Asians. And no Latinos. At least Big Brother has an Asian male, the affable, smiling, opera-singing Curtis, who seems to be trying to win the game by being as inoffensive and as bland as possible. Is this the inscrutable Asian strategy? It’s working. As for Latinos, none on El Grande Hermano. So where’s that diversity the networks promised us?
Survivor is still better than Big Brother, but not by much. Especially this week, BB is coming on strong with its first big vote on banishment. Our candidates: William, aka “Mega,” the African American brother whose strong sense of cool makes people feel uneasy around the house.
And then there’s the not-quite-so-typical white southern belle, the lantern-jawed Jordan. She’s perfect for this new public life, as a former “exotic dancer.” (Of course, we all know there’s a g-string of difference between “exotic dancer” and “lap dancer.” But why quibble?)
America now must vote. Will they vote? On a 900 number? Are you kidding? This is “Black man” vs. “Stripper,” not Bush and Gore.
But the Big Brother elections is the contest that seems to matter this year. Even though the ratings of Big Brother are not as stellar as Survivor, overall, the Nielsons show that this fak-ee “public life” draws a crowd. Unlike politics.
This year, the Kennedy School of Government has put out what’s called the “Vanishing Voter Index” to measure public attention on the presidential campaign. Guess what? No one’s paying attention. In the last two months, the involvement level has reached 28 percent just once, and has stayed mired around 20 percent.
Last week, the pollsters asked, “During the past day have you discussed the presidential campaign with anyone?”
Eighty-five percent said no.
It’s more likely everyone was talking about Survivor or Big Brother.
When the project asked people to assess the campaign, a whopping 66 percent picked one word: “Boring.”
That’s all right. Big Brother was boring until they began the votes for banishment last week. It’s clear what we should do, isn’t it?
Public life in real life isn’t public enough anymore. Candidates may complain about being put under a microscope. But it’s nothing like a “reality TV” lens. The ante’s been upped. Tell me if you don’t know more about Karen’s marriage than Tipper and Al’s, or G.W and Laura’s. And isn’t that at least more compelling than any one candidate’s plans to overhaul social security?
The reality shows have redefined “public life.” But I don’t think we need to see Al take on Survivor’s Rudy, the Navy Seal. That’s a bit too rugged, even for the new “Alpha Al.” Maybe we can let the VP nominees go on the island. They’ll be attending lots of funerals in remote places anyway.
So skip the trappings of traditional democracy, the debates and all. More suitable for our purposes is the Big Brother model. In the name of public interest, of course.
Put Bush and Gore in the Big Brother house, and let them interact for several weeks. Give them absolutely no privacy. This is a real test. In fact, it’s tougher than the White House, where even Bill Clinton found some privacy near the Oval Office pantry. Let Al and G.W. reveal all, in a fake reality way, of course. Just the two of them. No Karen. No Jordan. No Eddie. No Mega. Let’s see what they come up with. Will George say what he really thinks of the death penalty? Will Al talk about Bill? Will the topic turn to sex, drugs, military service? Whatever we get, it would certainly be 100 times more honest than a candidate on “talking points.”
What’s more, the American public would watch it.
All of it.
We’ll vote to see who gets banished from the House, and give that man the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
It’s the promise of free TV time made acceptable to the TV networks and executives, who plan to cut back on the conventions this year. (You wouldn’t want conventions to eat into Survivor, or Big Brother time, would you?)
From what I can tell, it’s just what the campaign needs-the Big Brother treatment. Imagine then, how close we could be to “getting the government we deserve.”
S.F.’s District Elections
July 20, 2000
San Francisco’s district elections are as much an opportunity as they are a threat to San Francisco’s nearly 300,000 Asian Americans seeking representation from City Hall. Potentially, the system could maximize representation in seven of the 11 supervisor districts, where APIs make up at least one-quarter of the population. However, in these strongholds, not all of the residents vote. As a result, the 13 Asian American candidates, including three incumbents Leland Yee, Mabel Teng and Michael Yaki will be limited to less than 60,000 API “likely” voters this November.
In one swoop this fall, we could end up with no API representation for the first time since Tom Hsieh was appointed to the board in 1986. We could end up without representation if we don’t vote for our candidates and if they don’t strike the winning coalitions outside the API community. Part of that reason is that our community is not aware of district elections.
Education on this process is crucial since nine out of ten voters last March did not know about district elections according to a recent non-partisan election exit poll.
To address that, we and our sister newspaper, the Independent, have been writting about district elections, hopefully enlightening our readers. In the same vein, the private and public sectors have rallied to inform the public. However, all of our resources are limited, compared to that of City Hall.
We commend Supervisor Mabel Teng, Director of Elections Patricia Fado, and the S.F. Elections Commission for their efforts to fund an outreach program to educate the public about district elections. Originally, the Department of Elections received $250,000 from the mayor to conduct the outreach campaign. Supervisor Mabel Teng requested an additional $155,000, which Finance Committee Chair Leland Yee approved.
The education campaign should not just talk about district elections, but also governance under the new system. While voters will select only one candidate in their district, both the voting and non-voting public still have the right to representation by all 11 supervisors. San Franciscans need to know what their Board of Supervisors does. For example, the legislative body scrutinizes the mayor’s $4.4 billion budget.
Compared to the budget, the outreach funds are miniscule. But a small investment will make district election better with an enlightened public.
The National APA Political Almanac: November 2000 and Beyond
July 20, 2000
By Phil Tajitsu Nash, weekly columnist and Washington Correspondent
The Asian American Studies Center at UCLA has outdone itself again, releasing its ninth edition of the National Asian Pacific American Political Almanac. With the financial assistance of the visionary Adrienne Pon of Pacific Bell/SBC (who has supported this and other essential API community resources over many years), Political Almanac director Don Nakanishi, co-director and editor James Lai, and their staff have pulled together a fascinating and important reference work. Not only does it provide a snapshot of API legislators, judges, administrators, and executives, but it also contains federal census data, API voting data, contact information for key API organizations, and essays that provide insight and encouragement to would-be office-holders.
According to Professor Nakanishi, head of UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center, this book highlights three components of the API political infrastructure that have relevance for the November 2000 elections as well as the 2001-2002 battles over redistricting and reapportionment.
They are:
- The growing numbers and diversity of API elected officials
- The “swing vote” potential of API voters in many jurisdictions
- New strategies and goals being used by API voters and groups.
Since this book was last published in 1998, there has been a 10 percent increase in the number of APIs holding elective, appointive, and major career offices in federal, state and local governments around the nation. Over 2200 API officials from 31 states and five territories are described in this book. While senior elective officials still hail from Hawaii and the west coast, and while Chinese and Japanese Americans continue to make up the bulk of the officials mentioned here, significant inroads are being made by officials from other ethnic backgrounds and other states.
For example, Vietnamese American Tony Lam (Westminster, California), Cambodian American Chanrithy Uong (Lowell, Massachusetts), and Hmong American Joe Bee Xiong (Eau Claire, Wisconsin) are the first Southeast Asians to be elected to their respective city councils.
Given how quickly things change in the political sector, some of the information included here already is out of date. Minnesota State Representative Satveer Chaudhary, for example, recently threw his hat in the ring for a State Senator position. And Norman Mineta, listed as Chair of the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Pacific Americans, was recently nominated by President Clinton for Secretary of Commerce.
Nevertheless, this book reveals some fascinating and useful facts about APIs leaders. In fact there are at least:
- 2 United States Senators (Inouye and Akaka, Democrats from Hawaii)
- 5 members of Congress
- 2 state governors (Hawaii and Washington);
- 26 state senators (22 from Hawaii, two from Oregon, and one each from Colorado and Washington)
- 49 state representatives (38 from Hawaii, 3 from Washington, two from California, two from Maryland, and one each from Arizona, Minnesota, Utah, and West Virginia)
- 26 city mayors
- 89 city council members
- 133 school board or higher education board members
- 210 judges
While APIs are in predictable roles related to their race, or issues such as immigration and education, they also are in positions that defy stereotypes, such as:
- Oymin Chin is a female Housing Court Judge in mostly-white Staten Island, N.Y.
- David Ling is the mayor of Rifle, Colo.
- Daniel Wong is a justice of the peace in Reno, Nev.
- Harry Lee continues his long career as sheriff in Jefferson Parish, La.
- Joseph Daning serves as Mayor Pro Tem of Goose Creek, S.C.
- Jon Amores represents the mostly-white capital city of Charleston in W.Va.
Introductory comments by Congressman David Wu, D-Ore., and civil rights lawyer Angela Oh are complemented by essays on the future of API political empowerment by seven writers and political activists, including myself. What may be the most valuable part of this book for the next decade, however, are two essays addressing the upcoming redistricting and reapportionment battles, and revealing how local activists can get involved.
Paul Ong and Tania Azores’s “Reapportionment and Redistricting in a Nutshell,” and Philip Okamoto’s “A Practical Guide to the Teaching Aspects of Redistricting” are two of the most concise and well-referenced papers I have seen on how to prepare for the re-drawing of political boundaries after the results of the 2000 decennial Census are released early next year.
As the authors point out, APIs have never had the political strength and savvy to participate in a meaningful way in mainland reapportionment and redistricting battles (as usual, Hawaiian politics is a case unto itself). By giving us notice and resources, the authors are doing a major service to Asian American communities all over the nation.
Scholars and community groups should place their orders soon so that they’ll be ready for November 7th and beyond. To order a copy, call 310-825-2968, email ku@ucla.edu, or visit the Asian American Studies Center’s website at www.sscnet.ucla.edu/aasc.
JACL Supports Wen Ho Lee
July 20, 2000
By Lena Chou
At its biennial national convention held this month in Monterey, Calif., the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) passed a resolution enumerating possible civil rights violations former Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) scientist Wen Ho Lee may have been subjected to by the U.S. government.
Lee is now awaiting trial on charges of mishandling classified nuclear information. He has also been under the umbrella of suspicion for passing nuclear data to China by the U.S. government, a charge that has not been officially brought up in court. His supporters contend that Lee is the victim of racial profiling and is being used as the scapegoat in the security scandal that has recent rocked the national labs.
Spearheaded by New York chapter member Sumi Koide, along with Arlene Oki, of the Seattle chapter and Yvonne Kinoshita Ward of the White River Valley chapter, the resolution will be sent to officials and agencies in Washington, D.C.
“We are one of the largest and oldest civil rights organizations in the country,” said John Tateishi, the executive director of the JACL. “The JACL has clout in Washington, D.C. We will present the resolution to the Justice and the Energy Departments.”
There were only three chapters who dissented from the majority who voted to pass the resolution. One of the members to object was Barry Saiki of the Stockton, Calif., chapter. He argued that the resolution presented too many “facts” that, in his opinion, needed verification before the resolution could be approved. He also felt that the resolution was “emotionally written.”
Saiki, who worked in counterintelligence for 21 years, advised citizens to consider this case as objectively as possible. “This is not a political issue,” he said. “This is a security issue. It’s dangerous to go too far when you don’t know what the government has uncovered.”
Included in the resolution are concerns that the government allegedly lied to Lee, saying he did not pass a polygraph test, even though he had; and that Robert Broom, a former head of counterintelligence at LANL, claimed that ongoing investigations at the lab were “ethnically focused.”
Oki equated the treatment of Lee to that of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II “It’s important to take a stand,” she said.
Supporters of Lee, including some members of the JACL, have rallied and protested on his behalf. They charged that lab officials targeted Lee because of his ethnicity, though the Taiwan-born scientist is a naturalized citizen. They have also have pointed out that similar security violations have been committed by other laboratory scientists, but that their punishments have been lenient in comparison to Lee’s imprisonment.
“The Energy and Justice department have been careful at labs because of what they have done with Japanese Americans and Asian Americans,” Tateishi said. “Now, racism is not as drastic. It’s more subtle. But certainly, I see [Lee’s case] as racism. Clearly, the government has overreacted.”
People in the News
July 20, 2000
Washington, D.C. - President Clinton has announced his intent to appoint Dr. Effie Poy Yew Chow as a member of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy, which is charged with developing a set of legislative and administrative recommendations to maximize the benefits of complementary and alternative medicine for the general public.
Sacramento, Calif. - Governor Gray Davis announced the appointment of Deputy Attorney General Nho Trong Nguyen to the Orange County Superior Court.
Nguyen, 61, of Rowland Heights, works in the Enforcement, Regulation and Administrative Section of the California Attorney General’s Office, representing State agencies and departments in civil litigation and administrative proceedings.
Nguyen was born in Vietnam where he had a distinguished record of public service before immigrating to the United States in 1975. He was elected to and served in Vietnam’s Congress, representing the First District of Saigon from 1967 to 1975. Starting over as a refugee in the United States, Nguyen attended night law school, while working during the day.
Nguyen replaces Judge Kathleen O’Leary, who was appointed by Governor Davis to the Fourth District Court of Appeal.
Minneapolis, Minn. - State Representative Satveer Chaudhary this month announced his candidacy for the Minnesota State Senate. If elected he would be its youngest member. Currently, he is the first Asian American elected to the Minnesota legislature. During his two terms in office, Chaudhary has been known as a champion of class-size reduction in public schools. He was named Legislator of the Year by the Minnesota Community College Student Association.
Minneapolis, Minn. - Jennifer Soo Alstad, co-founder and president of a Minneapolis-based Web site development company, B-Swing, has been named The U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Minnesota Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
Washington, D.C. - The Organization of Chinese Americans has announced three winners of the 2000 OCA Chinese American Journalist Award. This year’s first place winner is Shu Shin Luh, whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News and Chicago Sun Times. She was chosen for two of her articles in particular, “Immigrants vs. Divorce,” which chronicles the rising trend of divorce in the Asian American immigrant population. The work of Lia Chang, who placed second, has appeared in AsianWeek, Jade Magazine, A. Magazine and Kyodo news. Her article entitled, “An Active Vision” told the story of her mother, Beverly Umehara, who was a labor activist and president of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance’s national executive board. Janile Wong, who just graduated from Galileo Academy of Science and Technology, received third place for her autobiographical works, “Always Talking Never Listening” and “Growing through Community Service,” both of which were published in AsianWeek.
Monterey, Calif.-S. Floyd Mori was elected National Japanese American Citizens’ League President on July 1 at the annual convention in Monterey, Calif. Mori is a member of the Mount Olympus, Utah JACL chapter and previously served as a member of the California State Assembly.
San Diego, Calif.-Carmelita Vinson was recently elected president of the Filipino Chamber of Commerce of San Diego. Other office winners include Myrna Reyes as vice president of internal affairs; Susan delos Santos, vice president of external affairs; and Marie Bee Aguinaldo, treasurer.
Los Angeles, Calif.-The Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP) honored Tony Bui, Buddy Takata and Cora Tellez at their annual awards dinner on Wednesday. Bui wrote, directed and produced Three Seasons, the first American film shot in Vietnam since the Vietnam War, won awards at the Berlin International Film Festival this year. Takata co-founded the LEAP Leadership Development Program. Tellez, is president and CEO of Health Net, one of the largest health plans in California.
San Francisco, Calif.-ABC 7 this month honored five Bay Area APIs, including Fred Lau, chief of the San Francisco Police Department; Tsuyako “Sox” Kitashima, a community volunteer and activist who was instrumental in the redress movement for Japanese Americans who were interned during World War II; Helen Zia, an author, journalist and community activist who is a contributing editor to Ms. Magazine, and has written the critically acclaimed book Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People; Andrew Lam, a journalist for Pacific News Service and contributor to National Public Radio’s All Things Considered; and John Umekubo, a doctor who serves as vice president of the San Francisco Public Health Commission and chief of staff at St. Mary’s Medical Center.
Seven Accused of Hate Crime
July 20, 2000
Seven Livingston County men have been accused of assaulting another man at a restaurant in Rochester, N.Y., in what police describe as a hate crime.
The alleged attack occurred last month, but the Geneseo Police Department filed felony charges against the Dansville men on July 7.
On June 25, Aric Lee was having dinner at a Geneseo restaurant when he got up to use the bathroom. Lee said a group of men at the bar began using racial slurs. He confronted the men.
“I turned around and approached them and my exact words were, excuse me, did you guys say something?” Lee said.
Lee, a native New Yorker of Korean descent, said that he was on the floor within a matter of seconds, being punched and kicked until another patron called the police.
Lee suffered a broken arm, and doctors inserted a metal plate and pins in his arm during surgery.
The suspects are Shawn Schledorn, 23, Joshua Penta, 21, Adam Tuso, 20, Jeremy Tuso, 21, Daniel Renwand, 21, Jacob Sharp, 21, and Justin McKinney, 21.
Two suspects are working out of state and have not yet been taken into custody. If convicted, the suspects could face up to 25 years in prison. Last month the state Legislature passed the “Hate Crimes Act of 2000″, which stiffens penalties for such attacks.
Wrongful Death Suit Filed
July 20, 2000
The family of a slain Korean American man filed a civil lawsuit in the United States District Court last month claiming the death was the result of the use of excessive force by New Jersey police. The wrongful death suit states that Kyung-Ho La’s civil rights were violated and that the South Brunswick police officers conspired to alter evidence and police reports to cover up the December 1999 shooting. The family also claims that excessive force was used in an incident eight months earlier when La was physically harassed and subdued by two officers.
The case is currently in its early stage. The complaint was served just last week and the defendants have not yet had time to respond. Moreover, the South Brunswick Police Department would not comment on the civil litigation because the case is still active.
According to the filed suit, the police targeted La, in part because he was of Asian descent. On December 20, 1999, five officers, without obtaining a warrant or probable cause, entered into the home of La’s parents and confronted La, the suit alleges. When he fled, the officers chased La further into the house until he was cornered in the living room. While wielding a small blade as protection, La was fatally shot at least one time by Sergeant Raymond Hayducka.
But a grand jury found Hayducka not guilty last March.
“After hearing all the evidence, they decided it was not indictable; it was not a chargeable offense. The grand jury didn’t recommend prosecuting,” said South Brunswick Police Department Lieutenant Ron Schmalz. “It was a very thorough investigation.”
The police claimed the shooting was a self-defense measure-a statement Adam Slater, an attorney for the La family, calls absurd. “You have a skinny, 130 pound man with a rusty, blunt blade with no handle and the police with guns, who are trained to use them. The claim of self defense is ridiculous,” he said.
While the officers are cleared of indictment, they still face the charges of the civil lawsuit. The suit asserts that La was stripped of his rights to be “free from unreasonable searches, to be secure in his person and his home, to be free from unreasonable seizures and the use of excessive force, to equal protection of the laws, and to due process rights to be free from arbitrary and unreasonable actions,” which are protected under the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution.
Charges that the police conspired with each other to target La and falsify police reports regarding the circumstances of the shooting, are also detailed in the suit.
“Without getting too technical, there was a conscious decision made by and between various police officers to harass this young man,” said Slater.
Police may have been keeping a close watch on La for several months prior to the shooting because of complaints from neighbors who disliked him for unspecified reasons, said Slater. On April 24, 1999, officers Jeff Karpiscak and Richard Schwarz allegedly entered the property owned by La’s parents and confronted La as he was doing housework by the garage. Slater contends that without cause or provocation, the officers physically abused La by employing a stun gun and pepper spray and beat him. Alleged criminal charges, which the La family say were fabricated by the officers, were brought against La.
Communication between La and police was not a problem, said Slater, as La grew up and attended college in the United States.
He added that race may have played a significant role in La’s treatment from the police. “Race to some extent, had an effect. If he had been another race, especially Caucasian, this wouldn’t have happened,” he stated.
But even though the police actions may have been partially race-motivated, Slater is hesitant to file the case as a hate crime. “I would classify it primarily as ‘use of excessive force’ with aspects of biases,” he said.
Racial Stabbing Was Not First Incident
July 20, 2000
A racially charged fight that escalated into a fatal stabbing in the popular resort town of Ocean Shores, Wash., followed another racial incident in which the stabbing victim was a bystander, police said.
Christopher Kinison, 20, who was killed in a Fourth of July confrontation with an Asian American man and his twin brother, was on hand for an incident three days earlier between a group of whites and Filipino Americans, police said.
No one in that incident sought to press charges, so the names of those involved besides Kinison will not be released, Ocean Shores Police Sgt. Dave McManus said.
Minh Hong, 26, and his twin brother Hung Duc Hong were arrested after Kinison was stabbed 22 times and died. Hung Duc Hong was freed after investigators determined his brother had wielded the knife.
Minh Hong has pleaded innocent to first-degree manslaughter and is free on $20,000 bail.
Investigators said the fatal encounter began when the brothers and a friend stopped at a Texaco mini-mart at about 2 a.m. July 4 and were confronted by Kinison and a few other young white males.
Witnesses told police that Kinison shouted “Gooks go home,” and “White supremacy,” and waved a Confederate flag at the brothers. The Hong twins told police they entered the service station and bought food. While in the store, Minh Hong armed himself with two kitchen knives, prosecutors allege. He stabbed Kinison after Kinison punched Hung Duc Hong in the face. After the stabbing, the Hongs and their friend fled the scene. They asked a clerk at their hotel to call police, saying they had been attacked.
Grays Harbor County Prosecutor Stew Menefee has noted Kinison was stabbed 22 times. But Monte Hester of Tacoma, a lawyer for Hong, described the death as “a classic self defense case.” The number of stab wounds was “not really unusual in an event like this when you’re trying to save your life,” he said.
Kinison, of Olympia and formerly of the Ocean Shores area, was back in town to visit friends and had been a bystander at a July 1 incident involving a group of Filipino Americans.
Witnesses say Kinison was present when one man confronted the group of about a dozen Filipino Americans as they were returning to their cars in the parking lot of a kite shop.
Jennifer Kalaw, who was among the visitors, said the group of men swore at them and made references to “white power.” One person said Ocean Shores “is my (epithet) town,” she said.
Mark Macariola, 20, of Seattle, who was with the Filipino group, told the Seattle Times that one of the men punched the windows of a car belonging to members of his group, blocking the vehicle from leaving and saying, “Why don’t you guys step out?”
Macariola said his group included six men, six women and three children.
He said one of his companions has a concealed weapon permit and considered using his gun. But other members got away and contacted police, who arrived and escorted the tourists to the city limits to ensure they were safe, McManus said.
Police say Kinison arrived late in that incident and was only a bystander.
Ocean Shores civic leaders have maintained that the stabbing was an isolated incident and that minorities should not worry about visiting Ocean Shores.
“It’s unfortunate,” McManus said July 11. “I hope that people do not get the wrong impression of Ocean Shores.”
Kalaw said she had formed a definite impression.
“It’s really sad,” she said. “It’s a nice place to go and visit, but I’m too scared to go back.”
Terre Rybovich of the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity, a watchdog group, said the organization will look at whether Ocean Shores needs an affiliate of the coalition.
“Ocean Shores has never been considered a hot spot for us,” Rybovich said. “People are shocked and feel a burning urgency to do something about it.”