article, civilrights, news

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

2 Comments
Clara Wang’s USA TODAY Article
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/2016/03/17/peter-liang-conviction-new-york-city-police/81897708/
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.

article

The city as an arena for civic action

Leave a comment

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.)

news

220北美43城市挺梁大游行真实视频

Leave a comment

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)

article

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

2 Comments

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/

petition

Letter To Honorable Danny Chun via Peter Liang’s Lawyer

Leave a comment
Letter To Honorable Danny Chun via Peter Liang’s Lawyer

Please download one of the below letter, print, date& sign and send it to the included address; or send to Peter Liang’s lawyer:

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

Newest version:

injustice2 (PDF)

Old Version:

LetterToPeterLiangsLawyer  (PDF)

LetterToPeterLiangsLawyer (WORD)

article, civilrights

AsianCivilRights.org’s response to CAAAV’s statement regarding Peter Liang’s Trial

Leave a comment

Correspondence: Nancy R. Zhang (nrzhang@gmail.com), spokeswoman for Philadelphia’s 2/20/2016 #Justice4Liang Rally

On February 20, 2016, rallies held at more than 40 cities involving over 100,000 participants voiced loud and clear our deep and serious concerns over the conviction of former NYPD officer Peter Liang. Looking back, we are particularly disappointed with CAAAV’s hasty and misguided response to this tragic incident. We admire CAAAV’s dedication to serving the disadvantaged communities to which Akai Gurley belongs. However, we believe that CAAAV’s stance on this issue runs counter to the values of equality and justice on which the group was founded.

We disagree with CAAAV’s statement that Liang’s accidental shooting is “part of the systemic targeting of black people by the police” — Liang did not even see Gurley until minutes after Gurley was hit by the bullet, and hence this could not have been a race-inspired shooting. We disagree with their statement that the incident was “part of the institutional injustice we see everyday with law enforcement.” True, this tragic accident reflects deeper problems that pervade our law enforcement, but Liang’s act, of misfiring a bullet in to a wall in a pitch dark stairwell, is a far cry from the cases of police brutality that the CAAAV rightfully opposes.

Akai Gurley’s tragedy reveals inadequacies in the training that young NYPD police officers receive before taking to the streets. It reveals the dangers associated with NYPD’s policy of assigning teams comprised solely of inexperienced rookies to patrol New York’s most dangerous zones. It underscores the need for comprehensive security upgrades throughout New York’s public housing developments. Making Peter Liang a poster child for the city’s long-due response to police brutality is both unfair and counterproductive. It is unfair to Peter Liang. It is unfair to the past victims of true police brutality. It impedes progress by reinforcing the idea that responsibility for Gurley’s tragic death falls solely on the one individual at the frontlines, and not on the flawed system that placed him there.

We would also like to take this opportunity to clarify the misunderstandings reflected by the statements on CAAAV’s website.

  • By supporting Peter Liang and protesting against his conviction, we are not arguing for Liang’s innocence. We are protesting against the conviction of second degree manslaughter, which we believe to be too harsh.
    • By comparing the legal outcome for Liang’s case to the outcomes for the shooting of Michael Brown and the choking of Eric Garner, we are not voicing support for those past jury decisions. We invoke these past cases to emphasize the political pressures that served as a backdrop to Liang’s unfair ruling, and to highlight the selective prosecution that is so blatant in this case.

The tragedy of Akai Gurley’s death unfortunately happened amidst strained relations between NYPD and black communities. Yes, Black lives matter, but justice matters too. We admire CAAAV’s efforts to end racial injustice and empower Asian communities. However, we do not agree with CAAAV’s comparison of Liang’s incident with the shootings of Michael Brown and Rekia Boyd. These shooting incidents are clearly of a different nature. We hope that CAAAV, a group known for fighting injustice in America, can provide a more nuanced perspective on this complicated case.