APA Suspects Sought in Hate-Related Assault

June assault not indicative of a race-relations problem, community leaders say

By Andrew Chow
AsianWeek Staff Writer

The assault of a white juvenile by a group of unidentified Asian Pacific American males is not indicative of a larger racial problem, community leaders say. Still, police are investigating the June incident in San Francisco’s largely-APA Richmond district as a hate crime.

A patrolling officer found the 17-year-old male victim lying unconscious on the pavement and bleeding from his nose at the corner of 16th Avenue and Geary Boulevard about 12:30 a.m. June 9.

White and APA witnesses told police that a group of 10 to 20 young APA males assaulted the victim as he walked with two friends, ages 15 and 17, past a neighborhood cyber cafe.

The group of APA males had gathered on the sidewalk outside the cafe, according to police reports. When the victim told the APAs to “get out of the way,” one APA male confronted the victim, “What did you say to me, white boy?”

The group of APAs then followed the victim and his friends as they walked toward the Geary Mall, calling out, “Hey, white boy, we’re going to kick your ass.”

Members of the APA group knocked the victim to the ground, then kicked and punched him, police reports said.

No weapons were used, and the suspects fled on foot, the reports said. Witnesses described three of the APA male suspects as standing between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 10 inches, with possible ages ranging from 15 to 22.

The three white juveniles, including the victim, had been drinking alcohol prior to the assault, according to police reports.

The victim — who was treated for injuries at San Francisco General Hospital and released — was kicked in the head by members of the APA group, knocking him unconscious, his mother, Elta Anderson, told the neighborhood’s monthly Richmond Review newspaper.

Anderson said her son was walking past the cyber cafe after leaving a party and did not view the group of APA males as a threat. “A lot of his friends [are] Asian, so he didn’t think anything of it,” she said in the paper’s August edition.

But after the verbal confrontation, “A large number of Asian males started kicking him in the head and ribs, jumping on him and punching him in the face,” witness Albert Lin told the Review. “It was a very violent type of beating.”

Lin, 29, of San Francisco, said he sounded the horn in his car while witnessing the assault. The group fled in different directions, he said.

Former Richmond district Police Capt. Marsha Ashe told the Review there had been three previous reports of violence outside the cyber cafe. The district’s new captain, Patricia Jackson, told AsianWeek the June assault was likely an isolated incident. Police do not believe APA-white relations to be a problem in the Richmond, she said.

Kenneth Moy, board president of the Richmond District Neighborhood Center, said he had not heard of the assault. But Moy offered that the 20-year-old Neighborhood Center has recognized the need to address crosscultural sensitivity among the district’s younger generations.

“One of the core issues has to do with multiethnic diversity and … a focus on youth,” Moy said.

Moy, who has lived in the Richmond for more than 15 years, said he could not recall another similar incident of race-related violence in his neighborhood.

“We have a diverse group in terms of economic, social, as well as their familiarity with American culture,” he said. “We have a lot of immigrant families from all over the world here. I think we’re trying to learn to deal with each other as part of a community. Misunderstandings do occur.”

Still, Moy said news of the assault “renews my dedication in making sure the center continues to be a viable and vibrant force in the community, and to try to expand our outreach and our programs.”

“We’ve been relatively successful in building those bridges,” Moy added, “… [but] I wish we could have reached out to the people engaged in that act of violence.”

Briana Visser, program director at the Richmond Village Beacon Center that offers youth services aimed at “celebrating diversity” in the racially-mixed neighborhood, said she also did not know about the assault.

Visser said she had not heard of any other racially-charged incidents involving youth during her year-and-a-half tenure at the center located in George Washington High School, where the victim was a student.

Anyone with more information can call the Hate Crimes Unit of the San Francisco Police Department at 553-1133.

Reach Andrew Chow at achow@asianweek.com.