August 14, 2006
Asians Targeted in Queens Hate Crime Attack
An ugly tale from this weekend unfolded from the Queens District Attorney's office. Two white men were charged with beating two Chinese-Americans in Douglaston, and then tried to get away from police later on by crashing into the police cruiser and hurting the officers. From the DA's press release:
District Attorney Brown said that, according to the criminal charges, four Asian males – Reynold Liang, 19, John Lu, 19, David Wu, 19, and Wing Chung Poon – were in a white Lexus at approximately 2:30 a.m. on Saturday, August 12, 2006, when the defendants [19 year old Kevin] Brown and [20 year old Paul] Heavey pulled up alongside of them in a 1998 Toyota and began cursing and shouting racial slurs. At one point, the defendants allegedly drove behind Liang’s Lexus and intentionally rammed it. Fearful, Liang drove away in an attempt to escape from the two defendants. Believing he had eluded the defendants, he pulled over at the intersection of 44th Avenue and Douglaston Parkway, where victim Lu got out of the car to inspect the damage to the rear of the Lexus. As he did so, the defendants reappeared. Exiting their vehicle and approaching Lu, the defendants allegedly punched him about the head and body, causing him to suffer lacerations requiring multiple stitches and substantial pain, including several loose teeth. During the attack the defendants are alleged to have uttered more racial slurs. In coming to his friend’s aid, victim Liang was also allegedly punched and kicked about the head and body by the defendants. Crawling back to his car, Liang picked up “The Club” which was then allegedly grabbed from him by the defendants who used it to hit him numerous times about the head and body, causing him to sustain a possible fractured skull and substantial pain to his chest.Brown and Heavey were charged with assault, reckless endangerment, and criminal mischief as hate crimes, which has a more severe penalty. And Brown had been charged with assault and reckless endangerment when he beat up a driver and the driver's brother during an car accident in May.The District Attorney said that police officers assigned to the NYPD’s 111th Precinct pulled the defendant Brown’s Toyota over approximately twenty minutes after the incident in Bayside, at the intersection of Cloverdale Boulevard and 46th Avenue. As Police Officer Graziano Cillo attempted to arrest Brown, the defendant allegedly put the Toyota into drive, causing it to crash into Officer Cillo’s police vehicle and the door of the Toyota to close on his head and arm. When Officers Anthony Panetta and Scott Lutz then attempted to handcuff Brown, the defendant allegedly flailed his arms, causing injuries to Officer Lutz’s hand.
While Brown's lawyer says that no racial epithets were used in harrassing the group, a witness, John Pangia, who happens to be a private investigator, says he heard Brown and Heavey yelling, "They were yelling 'You g--k, stay out of our neighborhood." Ah, gook, the catch-all Asian slur - very, very clever. And trying to run away from the police by, essentially, assaulting them? Clearly, the attackers are trying to hang themselves. At any rate, Newsday continues Pangia's account: "They said: 'See what happens when you ... come around our neighborhood! You want more? You want more?'" The Daily News reports that Pangia wrote down Brown's license plate and helped the police find the pair, and the NY Times says that Pangia saw other neighbors on the block trying to get Brown and Heavey to stop beating Liang and Lu.
City Councilman Tony Avella, who represents Douglaston and Little Neck (Liang's family lives in what the Times called a "richly landscaped home on a block in Little Neck where houses are valued at more than $1 million"), told the Times he didn't know of any Asian-specific hate crimes, but Chinese-American former deputy police commissioner Hugh M. Mo says that with more Asians moving into white neighborhoods, “obviously some ethnic whites find it hard to accept... It is really no different than incidents where blacks ventured into Howard Beach or the Rockaways. Queens is going to see more and more of these kinds of incidents.” Which is depressing to think we have to hear about vicious hate crimes on a regular basis, but it's probably true.
Last summer, a group of black men were attacked in Howard Beach; the ringleader was sentenced to 15 years in prison earlier this year for committing the hate crime.
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ok, we get it, you're asian. GOTHAMist should really rename itself to ASIANist.
"Ethnic white"... interesting. that's a new term. Clearly a rank below the white with....no ethnicity?
Hugh mo is lucky in that he probably has a license to carry.
And, why should Jen not use Gothamist to post this?
It's a news story.
Go back to craigslist.
Yes, ethnic white is the new term for White Trash.
Like Porn, you'll know them when you see them.
Notice, the perps work as a Valet for a restaurant and an Alarm installer.
I can see the Alarm guy's sales pitch, you need this alarm to keep the animals away.
"And, why should Jen not use Gothamist to post this?
It's a news story.
Go back to craigslist."
"Yes, ethnic white is the new term for White Trash."
Gothamist and its commenters are quite funny today.
Seriously, though, what does "Ethnic White" mean?
Damn Righties.... always messing with us Lefties...
Wait a minute... They're White??
My mistake
Wing Chung Poon
That is an excellent name.
and, you've added what to this post, mihow?
Why don't you ask the Hugh Mo what "ethnic white" is?
I'm confused over the definition of "hate crime". Maybe someone can help me.
Isn't punching someone in the head already illegal? I believe it's known as assault, a pretty serious offense. I would imagine it's almost always a demonstration of hate.
Why the special law?
Then end result is the same and should handled accordingly, who cares why it was done. If the attacker assaulted the victim because he didn't like the way he was driving it would be less of a crime? Ridiculous.
Consider:
You're a purple guy and your neighbor is a purple guy. You go over and break his window because his dog keeps shitting in your yard. Crime: damaging property.
Your a purple guy and your neighbor is a green guy. Green guys are a special class of people who are protected by extra laws. You break his window because his dog keeps shitting in your yard. Crime: Hate crime?
Give it a break.
Ethnic white is probably the new term to distinquish between the upper-class whites / yuppie upstarts and the working-class whites with accents who are pretty much gone from this region (thanks to Bloomberg's very vocal campaign to get rid of working people from NYC... yet he gets surprised when teachers can't afford to live here??).
They mostly exist in Queens, NYS, SI, and the inner parts of New Jersey. Notable characteristics: wife-beaters, gelled up hair, names like Tony Giaccomi, Greg Jones, Bob Bobowksi, etc.
Disgusting. Surprised (and a little disappointed)those fools didn't get a serious crack upside the head with the baton for resisting arrest. (Wow, you know it's a bad day when I actually wanna see some police brutality.)
But it's a little encouraging to know there's still some brave folks willing to come forward & help out when it's needed. Seems like Chelsea area residents could take a cue from their Queens neighbors.
Bury them UNDER the jail, I say.
so the white trash guys(ethnic whites) that beat up the asian guys for being asian were driving a toyota truck......perfect
I'm no legal expert, but with regards to Jason McElroy's post, isn't attacking somebody because of their ethnicity / ethnic background, religion, sexuality, etc., a violation of their civil rights? I believe that it's intent in the same way that killing somebody accidentally in a car accident is vehicle manslaughter and killing somebody you know for a reason is flat-out murder.
I agree, I don't know what the term "ethnic white" is supposed to refer to. Maybe non-Protestant Caucasians (e.g., Irish, Italians, Jews, etc.?).
Again, jason,
till your "kind" get's lynched, we'll call it even.
So, leave your purple and green people out of it.
Yea the hate crime stuff is ridiculous. Thought crimes are the way this country is headed though. what happened Orwell? Things should not be this complicated. Kill or try to kill someone and you are locked away for life. How were these two perpetrators out on the street when they tried to run someone over last May? That's ridiculous.
Jason McElroy:
No - a hate crime happens when purple guy breaks green guy's window, not because a dog shit in his yard, but because he's a green guy.
Why the "special law," as you call it? Think about it this way. It's bad enough you're beating the crap out of someone, but how much more ridiculous is it if you're just beating the crap out of them for fun because they just happened to be a particular skin color and rolled into your neighborhood at the wrong place and at the wrong time.
I don't think you'd get it though. Somehow I get the feeling that you've jumped on the "whites are being victimized" bandwagon. I suggest you give THAT a break.
Brown and Heavey sound like complete wackadoos. Where is the photo of the dynamic duo to help confirm my theory?
My first thought was that I hope the cops test them for drug and/or alcohol abuse because it's difficult to believe that anyone could be that innately stupid.
Hate crime legislation may be ridiculous, but would you be against giving them a harsher sentence since it was racially motivated?
I wouldn’t. Let them rot in jail for an extra few years.
Wow, a guy named Wing Chung Poon crashed his car in Queens. There's a shocker!! lol.
I am curious as to why only two of the Asian teenagers were beaten when there were four occupants in the car. The NYTimes article referred to two Asians calling their cellphones for help. Were they the other people in the car? Or just bystanders?
all crimes are pretty heinous, i don't think motive should determine sentencing
also wanted to add that yelling racial slurs while attacking someone doesn't make it a hate crime...
Wrong, Paul.
The two confronted the victims first by ramming their car into the victims. Then they followed them and proceeded to use their heads as a football on a tee.
So, leave your stereotype out of this.
Still waiting for a outraged press release to be issued by councilman John Liu. What's taking him so long???
(Just joshin'...I like the guy.)
I grew up in Little Neck in the 90's, and I remember a couple of local white gangs named, TMR ("The Master Race") and LNB ("Little Neck Boys"). I used to play baseball with a couple of guys in elementary school who eventually joined TMR, and, thereafter, we went out separate ways ... I went to high school and my two former friends did not. NY Times' article which tries to convey a theme of socio-economic disparity between whites and the Asian-American population in Eastern Queens does not, among other things, consider the najority of whites (esp. Jews), in these areas, who succeed and those Asian-Americans who do not fare well.
Its funny to see all these people, who are obviously not minorities, struggling to see why a hate crime is bad. Its easy not to understand racism when you never really face it in your life. When you can see yourself being chased because the color of your skin, get back to me.
Brown is the son of a retired NYPD officer and had a previous assualt incident.
What is it with these "people"? What they have in common?
First you have all these offsprings of cops doing this crap (think the other hate crime early this summer, linked in the gothamist post). and not to be outdone, the grandson of borough pres.
oh, I know. see post number 10 by uhr...
Its funny to see all these people, who are obviously not minorities, struggling to see why a hate crime is bad. Its easy not to understand racism when you never really face it in your life. When you can see yourself being chased because the color of your skin, get back to me.
hey korean guy, i'm a chinese guy, and i still failed to see why a crime needs to be classified as a hate crime. a crime is a crim is a crime...
I agree with koreanguy. People who are annoyed by terms like "hate crime" have obviously not have had to face situations, during their childhood, where their parents are being cursed at and ridiculed by a group of white teenagers, where they are surrounded and beaten by a group of whites in a playground just for "being in their land," ... where in history lynching and ripping the organs of human beings is something that's done to "them" for talking to a white woman ... where driving around in a white suburb gives cops automatic just cause to search the vehicle and arrest ...
Lest we forget that hate crimes protect white people, as well. They exist to prevent crimes directed at any person because of his or her race - the laws tend also to apply to gender, religion, sexuality, etc. There are lots of sound reasons why these laws exist - I really don't know why people are so against them.
Enough with the cutesy "purple" and "green" people crap, too.
These two "winners" have seriously fucked themselves:
-assault
-reckless endangerment
-criminal mischief
-all as hate crimes
-resisting arrest
-assaulting a police officer
If convicted, they face up to 15 years in jail.
Which means they'll be seeing a LOT more minorities... up their rectum.
so beating someone senseless because they're a different color somehow warrants more punishment than beating someone senseless just because you're bored and have nothing better to do?
#30 - Laws dont exist to make people feel better about their childhood, they exist to provide a just and fair society to those who live in that society. And just like #29, i'm a chinese too. I've been called names just like every one else has.. Still doesn't give me the right to demand special treatment.
Again, in regards to #13 - killing someone on accident is always a different class of crime than killing someone on purpose. Once you've decided to kill someone on purpose, what difference does it make whether you are deranged enough to kill because you don't like the color of their skin or the color of their clothes or the color of their car? They're a criminal all the same..
Ethnic white is probably the new term to distinquish between the upper-class whites / yuppie upstarts and the working-class whites with accents who are pretty much gone from this region (thanks to Bloomberg's very vocal campaign to get rid of working people from NYC... yet he gets surprised when teachers can't afford to live here??).
They mostly exist in Queens, NYS, SI, and the inner parts of New Jersey. Notable characteristics: wife-beaters, gelled up hair, names like Tony Giaccomi, Greg Jones, Bob Bobowksi, etc.
No, there's a big difference between "working class" and "rednecks." I'd think it would be quite embarrassing to the working class when rednecks like these guys surface in their neighborhoods. A lot of them like to poke fun at how "backward" the rest od the country is, but in reality, rednecks are everywhere.
Does this mean my mechanic, police officer, iron miner, and other working class relatives are also considered, "ethnic whites?" Or do you have to reside in the 5 boroughs to be eligible for such a special status?
What they did was atrocious, no matter where they did it.
K, YES.
Beating someone up senseless while yelling slurs and this statement (paraphased) "get out of this neighborhood" "you don't belong here" "this is what we do to "blank"" definately deserves more punishment.
I'm sorry you can't see that, maybe someday you will.
I find it odd that beating someone out of boredom is even in your vocabulary.
"Gook"? WTF, since when isn't 'chink' good enough?
'Hate crime' - makes my stomach turn. Quick...call the thought police! You lefty douchebags should be up in arms over this, but that wouldn't be PC would it.
Hypocritical assholes, you should all be sterilized and put to work in the mines.
Just like her shows,
sarah silverman is uncomprehensible and played out.
"I've been called names just like every one else has.. Still doesn't give me the right to demand special treatment."
There's a biiig difference btwn being called a name and having your life threatened and/or property destroyed b/c your race, religion or sex/sexual orientaion singled you out for that kind of "special treatment". Sorry you can't see that, hope you're never in that situation where you would. (Assuming you really are Chinese, which I kinda doubt.)
And if you are ever in such a situation (heaven forbid), YOU certainly don't have to press charges as a hate crime if it offends you so damn much.
You guys have to understand some of the anger - seeing your home town becoming a strange new place because an insular culture has taken hold. and as much as I likes the other cultures, there some pretty inward cultures around there.
I mean, I've seen a lot of signs like: Chinese speaker only, or Korean speaker only. You can imagine why some of the less tolerant get really pissed about that, especially when they start to get excluded right in their own home.
Such is life, eh?
Ethnic whites = Irish, Italians, European Jews, and Poles. Basically, any European people that had to 'become white' in America after being harrassed, beaten, murdered or made to suffer egregious hate crimes back on the old continent.
They used to be the majority of white people here in New York.....before it got invaded by hipsters!
Nobody is getting special treatment. Hate crime laws are designed to protect everyone. The reality of the situation is, however, that its mostly minorities who need this protection.
A hate crime victimizes an entire race not a single person. Now every Asian person in Douglaston has to worry if they're next. If it was just one kid beating up another kid over a dispute, that would not be the case.
"You guys have to understand some of the anger - seeing your home town becoming a strange new place because an insular culture has taken hold. and as much as I likes the other cultures, there some pretty inward cultures around there."
Like the cultish upwardly-mobile Middle American white people in stupid clothes that have invaded Brooklyn? Can they be beaten next? I hate recent immigrants. And their indie rock.
I 'understand some of the anger',indeed!
Good explanation, infamous.
Notice those "whites" you mentioned also didn't speak any English. Some still don't.
I don't see any bitching and whining of that in Brighton Beach, parts of Williamsburg, etc.
I'd like to add in Hipsters and transplants from the mid west, your michigans and parts west of Pittsburgh.
I think of the reasons behind hate crime legislation is that it would add on more years than if the perpetuator was accused of just a misdemeanor, or public disorderliness, or assault, or whatever it is. It's to make sure that those people don't get off easy for attacking someone for an intrinsic quality that he or she can't change.
And Perry, the "special treatment" you talk about applies to whites and people in the majority culture as well.
JJ, you are an offensive idiot. And no, not offensive to just the "PC" crowd.
I think the most complaining in this country comes from white males and I'm damn tired of it!
#36, have you ever gotten into an argument with someone you despised? have you never started throwing hateful words around to degrade the person? thats what i believe racist words are...just words thrown around to dehumanize and degrade another person. it certainly does not automatically classify a crime as a *hate* crime.
so help me out, if i want to insult an ethic whitey i cannot say yo stupid red neck i have to say you stupid backass white trash?
Jeez, K
you went from beating someone senseless to now saying a racial slur?
did you read ethos #39's post?
#34, my point is not to make a person feel better about his/her childhood but that the hate crime legislation exists partly to remedy societal wrong evident in recent American history. The fact that a group of white teenagers confronts an Asian-American or a black kid just because of the kid's race illustrates that the group of white of teenagers either find it acceptable in their little world to feel superior to the kid or that they have parents who teach them to hate. Btw, you're not Chinese.
If you spend a lot of time complaining about hipsters on the internet, you just might be a redneck.
my problem is with the system of harsher penalties for hate crimes. point is, why should these two kids get a stiffer sentence just because they yelled out some racial slurs? so next time i want to go beat up a white guy or something, as long as i don't call him a cracker i'll get a lighter sentence? its ridiculous. a crime is a crime. they deserve the same punishment.
"...just because they yelled out some racial slurs"
Motivation in committing a crime has a profound impact on how that crime is charged and sentenced and is not just limited to hate crimes. It can very well be the difference between 3rd and 1st degree murder.
Im sure there are examples, but I’m not the law.
#52, so should someone who goes out beating up on people for fun should get a lesser sentence than someone who beats up a person because of the color of their skin? what is so different about the two? its still a pretty effed up thing to do no matter how you look at it.
If you're white, how would you feel if you get a position in, say, China ... and one day, you find out that a few Chinese kids decide to smash your son's skull and crack all his teeth while preaching, "You want more, you f*in white trash! Get the hell out of my land!" just because he's white. You wouldn't think "hate crime" legislation is at least one step the government can take to prevent such gratuitous violence?
I think some of the commenters here are dancing around a common point: racism is bad, and a racially-motivated crime is decidedly ugly. But crime is also ugly. K seems to be indicating that the distinction is problematic, among others - i.e., who is to say that beating someone up while yelling an ethnic (or homophobic, or misogynistic, et al, as hate crime laws encompass) slur is definitively worse than beating someone up for another ignorant, stupid reason - say, the dog-shitting-on-lawn excuse?
What worries me about hate crime is not what it's meant to protect and prevent - amen to that. There have been some disgusting crimes in the past few years, and all evidence points to color or sexuality-based hatred as key motivators. But as Sarah Silverman (really?) posted, as un-PC as it may seem, anybody with a generally liberal attitude should be wary. Not all words convey the speaker's real beliefs OR intentions - and last time I checked, bigots are still allowed to be bigots. It's a constitutional right, like it or not; freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, et al.
On the other hand, if there's compelling evidence that "hate" as it's being defined by this kind of legislation is the lone agitator in a violent situation, I don't mind sticking it to the criminal in question as a result. Laws like this are meant to prevent hate-based crime - the notion that the types of gangs one commenter described might decide NOT to beat someone up if they consider the consequences they'll face, being that they're openly intolerant.
All this is to say that hate legislation, if tricky, can be a just thing in the right hands. We have to trust that a good jury will recall the principle of reasonable doubt - as will the judge, when sentencing a criminal.
hey, im asian and i still think hate crime legislation is ridiculous. And do you honestly believe that legislation is what prevent would-be criminals from doing their thing? i think its the fear of getting caught (and then the legislation) that prevents most crimes from happening. in the heat of the moment you're not thinking "if i do this, i'll get 15 years in prison", you're thinking "if i get caught, i'll get 15 years in prison", or sometimes, you're just thinking..."i wanna beat the crap outta this guy for no apparent reason"
rp, that was very well put. and i can agree with your last point that it is very tricky, which is my biggest concern with hate crime legislation.
K, you're not Asian. Please stop that.
#58, wheres that technology that shows you the face of someone posting over the internet? i'd like to invest in that. you don't know me. stop assuming.
Ok K, you know what you are. just know that adding, "I'm Asian," or "I'm Chinese," doesn't make your "unbiased" point any stronger.
me chinese,
me play joke.
me put pee-pee in your coke.
lol