Response to Misintepretation of 220 Rallies in Clara Wang’s Opinions on USA TODAY

Clara Wang’s USA TODAY Article
Clara-


As one of the organizers of the Peter Liang rally in Philadelphia, I have to say I strongly disagree with your overall opinions on those rallies in 43 cities across the nation. As a Chinese American, I hate to tell you I am disappointed that you, a top university educated Asian descendent, unfortunately misconstrued the rallies and our pledges. Furthermore, your article is spreading the wrong messages and bringing more misinterpretation to the general public. I ask you to stop, listen to me, and think again for yourself.

You wrote “both black and white activists misconstrue Asian activists as protesting Liang’s conviction. What they are really protesting is the fact that so many white cops before Liang got away with the same crime scot-free.” You may believe you have possessed the insider’s viewpoints on these protests as an Asian descendent. Unfortunately I have to tell you, you can’t be more wrong! The black and white activists are correct. We are protesting Liang’s conviction. We are protesting the NYPD’s bureaucracy which has created two victims, Gurley and Liang. We intend to stop this bureaucracy further victimizing Liang by over-penalizing him with a conviction disproportional to his misconduct. Based on your article I had to guess you really knew little about the depths and magnitude of these rallies and our pledges. Please spare yourself five minutes to watch some YouTube videos on those rallies. I doubt you would find substances to support your claims. Could you possibly have misjudged your fellow Asian protesters?

You stated people went on protests “wasn’t because the verdict was unjust. They were angry because so many white police officers involved in fatal shootings before him were let off. Liang,” Again, you are wrong! We are protesting because the conviction was unjust! We don’t believe Liang’s conviction of 2nd degree manslaughter fits the facts of a misfired bullet bouncing off a wall and accidentally hitting Mr. Gurley in the dark. More evidences have surfaced with regards to the accidental and tragic nature of Mr Gurley ‘s death, and the political undercurrent of the subsequent conviction. Those new findings have cast serious doubt on various aspects of this conviction including mishandled court hearings. Questions for you, in your idealist mindset, have you ever wondered why a then 26-year old, only several years senior of you, who may not be as privileged to enter a top university, got convicted for reckless 2nd degree manslaughter from a gun accident in NYC, where NO police officers have been convicted in line-of-duty shooting deaths for over a decade? Have you ever wondered why the NY Police Union did not spare him a top attorney, as the Union had previously done in similar incidents, as many other police unions in the country may have done? Have you ever wondered what life and death really meant to two rookie cops while patrolling at night in NYC house projects which at times can be war-zone like, and near where two police officers were killed in execution style in 2014? Have you ever wondered why NYPD had two rookie officers without adequate training patrolling in those highly dangerous areas? Aren’t you suspiciouu?  Had you thought through those facts, I doubt you would have stated “Liang is facing up to 15 years in prison, and rightfully so…for a police officer in a tense situation — especially in New York City — there is no room for panic”.

I trust you would do more research on this tragedy, rethink your opinions, and take corrective actions. If you need info, please contact me at fishswimsallday@gmail.com. I appreciate you have properly acknowledged a few good things of those protests such as breaking away from being the silent minority. Thank you.

The city as an arena for civic action

I recently dug up this 2014 TED talk by Asian American author, civic educator and politics commentator Eric Liu.  In this talk, Mr. Liu put forth the simple but often overlooked idea that the power of individual citizens are best realized at the local level, in the arena of the city.  Mr. Liu was President Clinton’s speechwriter so of course his own talk is very engaging.   I was reminded of Mr. Liu’s work by Wen’s recent essay urging Asian Americans to engage in local public service and politics.

A few days ago, a group of community volunteers started the Philadelphia Tri-State Chinese American Association. The mission of this nonprofit organization is to encourage and support Chinese Americans in local public service and politics. I think this is a wonderful and timely act.

Also by the way, here is a whimsical quiz written by Eric Liu to see how much political power YOU have:

(Not to be taken too seriously.)

220北美43城市挺梁大游行真实视频

220北美43城市挺梁大游行
6分钟连接全北美43城市游行真实视频,看后画面震撼给力。当华人遇到不公正的对待时,华人都出来一起呐喊,一起为不公平游行抗议。视频制作用时20多天,挺梁团队视频群收集大量视频很辛苦。大家请转到你的朋友圈里或转发到各个网站上,为华人团结一心出一份力!(Edwin Yao)

Jason Shen: What is life like for the Asian American man in 2015?

I didn’t really think much about how my own race/ethnicity affected my life until 2011, when I read the ludicriously long piece in New York Magazine. It was called Paper Tigers, with the subtitle: “What happens to all the Asian-American overachievers when the test-taking ends?” and it covered issues I had discussed occasionally with friends but rarely saw elsewhere.

Questions like how come Asians are rarely in leadership positions despite being “so smart”? Or is it possible to maintain traditional Asian values like being humble in a loud, show-off-to-get-ahead world? Or why the hell was dating so damn hard?

I thought Wesley Yang’s article was going to lead to a national conversation about these issues, given that Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mom by Amy Chua had been all over the media for months. But it didn’t happen. It’s understandable in some respects because he admits that he is “in most respects devoid of Asian characteristics”. While born to Korean parents, he does not: speak Korean, believe in Asian values, date Korean women or have any Korean friends. Maybe this was all he wanted to say about being an Asian man.

And yet, there’s more to our story.

Asians are the fastest growing minority group in America, while in sheer number are far fewer than blacks or latinos. a far smaller minority group compared with blacks and latinos, but are also growing faster than either. We often get lumped into the same category as whites in tech diversity reports, but when it comes it executive leadership, Asians are 2.5x less likely to be in an executive role compared to whites.

I was having some conversations with an old friend of mine, who’s Chinese, and who has been grappling with these issues both at work (he’s a resident at a hospital in NYC) and in his dating life (where he’s single again after a 3 year relationship). He encouraged me to write more about this topic, and I decided that if I were to do that, I’d need a lot more than a few stories from my own life and from my friends.

So I’m collecting some data via a side project called The Asian American Man Survey.

Already, over 100 East, South, and Southeast Asian men living in the United States have taken the study, sharing their perspectives on how they’re treated compared to whites, and non-Asian minorities, how they feel their race affects their opportunities at work, and how it plays a role in who they date and who they settle down with.

If you’re are an Asian man living in America or you know some who might be interested in this, I’d love if you could share this study with them.

I’ll be closing results on November 30th and sharing results sometime in December.

Source: http://www.jasonshen.com/2015/what-is-life-like-asian-american-man-in-2015/

请求法官给梁彼得轻判的信

请大家下载下面一个文件(Word 的或PDF 的都行),打印, 在上面空白处填好姓名地址,还有日期,   在下面空白处签名, 然后寄给法官(地址在信内) 或者梁彼得的律师。 这封信比change.org上的那封更重要。

Mr. Paul Shechtman        
      
399 Park Ave.                       
14th Floor                            
New York, NY 10022-4614

最新版:

老版:

AsianCivilRights.org 就梁彼得事件对CAAAV声明的回应

张若楠 (nrzhang@gmail.com), 费城220游行发言人
: 武玮

2016年2月20日,愈十万人的大游行燃遍全美四十余城市,对前纽约警员梁彼得所遭遇的不公审判表达了力度空前的抗议,以及对司法公正的呼唤。回顾整个事件,我们对CAAAV无视事实、不负责任的言论感到非常失望。CAAAV为包括非裔在内的弱势群体服务的宗旨令人敬重,但是在这次事件的处理上,该组织已严重背离了追求平等和公正的初心。

CAAAV的声明中,对案件的基本事实有多处描述错误。梁彼得的无意误射被他们描述为“警察系统故意针对非裔族群的行为”。然而,梁彼得在一片漆黑中受惊而误射,开枪后十分钟左右才发现了被子弹击中的格雷;试问,梁在没看见遇害人的情况下又如何针对其族群?CAAAV还在声明中将这起事故描述为“每天都在上演的执法系统的制度化不公”。梁彼得误射一枚子弹,经墙壁反弹后不幸击中遇害者,与CAAAV所反对的故意暴力执法有着本质的不同。分析这起悲剧的深层原因确实有助于包括CAAAV在内的所有人更深刻地了解执法系统的缺陷,然而简单将梁作为针对的目标却过于不负责任。

如前所言,梁彼得和格雷的这场悲剧确实反映了执法和司法系统的许多深层问题。其一,梁以及其同伴在危险环境中的惊慌及过失,反映出纽约警署没有对年轻警官给予充分培训和指导、就将他们派上了危险的岗位。其二,纽约警署将两个缺乏经验的年轻警员配对、派到全市最危险的社区巡逻,指向了其部署警力方面的制度缺陷。其三,事故发生地为市政府管辖的补贴房,其缺乏足够的照明和安全措施的状态是导致悲剧的重要因素,也说明了市政管理上的失责。如果单纯把矛头指向梁彼得,既是对梁的不公平,也是对真正的暴力执法行为的受害者的不公平。这种避重就轻的做法,将大众的不满情绪和注意力完全转移到惩罚梁一人,却不去追究把他置于此情境、从而酿成悲剧的真正责任部门。