Diambil dari NY Times. Rupanya keadilan selalu punya mata. Nggak di
Indonesia, nggak di Washington State, sama saja lah. Kalau di Ocean Shore,
si pembela diri kena tuduh walaupun badan lebih kecil dan jelas-jelas
diserang oleh rasis. Kalau di Indonesia lain lagi. Yang minority malah
selalu sok jago.
------------------------------
A Racist Attack, a Town Plagued
By TIMOTHY EGAN
OCEAN SHORES, Wash.,
Oct. 12 — On the Fourth of
July weekend last summer, Minh
Duc Hong and his twin brother,
Hung, drove to this seaside resort
town two hours southwest of
Seattle, hoping to see fireworks.
They stopped for food at a gas
station here, where they were
spotted by a group of white men
waving a Confederate flag.
The men used an ethnic slur, and shouted "go home" and "white
power" as they waved the flag and pounded on the gas station
windows, the police and prosecutors here say. The Hong
brothers fled to their parked car, where one of the white men,
Christopher Kinison, 20, punched Hung Hong in the face, the
authorities said.
When the Hongs fought back,
Minh Hong used a kitchen knife
from the gas station to stab Mr.
Kinison, killing him, witnesses told
the police. When it was over, the
police arrested the Hong brothers
and characterized the fight as an
all-too-typical late- night fracas
that got out of hand. Minh Hong
was charged with manslaughter
and is now free on bail.
But now a number of
Asian-American civil rights groups
have asked the Federal Bureau of
Investigation to determine whether
the police were lax in responding
to a contagion of hate through this
town for one long weekend. They say the death occurred amid a
spurt of
racial harassment by Mr. Kinison and his friends. Had the police
acted
earlier, Mr. Kinison would not have been free to harass the Hongs,
the
Asian-American groups say.
Just one day before the fight at the gas station, Mr. Kinison was
with a
group of white men who confronted two Filipino families, shouting
at
them and punching at the windows of their cars, the Ocean Shores
police
said. The white men shouted, "What are you doing in our town?"
witnesses told the police.
The Filipinos were given a police escort out of town — at their
own
request, prosecutors say — but no arrests were made of the whites.
Three Asian-American civil rights groups say the whites should
have
been arrested on racial harassment charges, this state's
equivalent of a
hate crime statute.
"If handled differently by local law enforcement, bystanders and
other
members of the community, perhaps the fatal altercation could have
been
prevented," wrote leaders of the Japanese-American Citizens
League,
one of three groups pressing the F.B.I. for an inquiry.
In another case on the same weekend, a black man said Mr. Kinison
and
several other white men chased him down the beach with a knife,
using
racial insults.
"The police see these cases as just boys will be boys," said Karen
Yoshitomi of the Japanese-American Citizens League. "That's just
hooey.
This group of whites was clearly targeting people of color. The
police
response was to do nothing. And that's why we have to go to the
F.B.I."
Officials of the bureau in Seattle have not said whether they plan
to open
an investigation, although police officials here say they have not
been
asked any questions by federal authorities.
Ms. Yoshitomi said that Asians should have reason to fear coming
to this
town of 3,200 people, which is dependent on tourists and
convention
gatherings for most of its income. "There's a feeling that nothing
has been
done to recognize a hate crime when it happens," Ms. Yoshitomi
said.
In the letter to the bureau, the leaders of the three
Asian-American civil
rights groups wrote, "Our community remains frustrated over what
is
perceived as the failure of law enforcement to pursue hate crimes
against
Asian-Americans and the ability of law enforcement to protect us."
The Hong case has prompted much soul-searching and second-
guessing
in this overwhelmingly white resort community. Racial crimes are
not
much of a problem, people here say, but, as is the case in many
small
towns, the police are criticized for failing to detect patterns of
racial
hatred.
"If somebody is waving a Confederate flag in this town, the police
should
be called," said Vini Samuels, a lawyer whose family is from
India. "I
know I would call the police. But generally, minorities should
have no
reason to fear coming here."
The police and prosecutors in Ocean Shores say they acted
properly, but
were unable to make racial harassment arrests because the victims
did
not wish to press charges.
"We are not the kind of community that has a lot of trouble with
racists,"
said Rich McEachin, the Ocean Shores police chief. "One bad
weekend
over 20 years is a pretty good record."
Chief McEachin said the Filipinos who had been confronted by the
whites a day before their run-in with the Hong brothers simply
wanted to
leave town and did not press for further police action. "Without
their
cooperation, we don't have a case," he said.
And in the case of the black man who said he was chased, no police
action was taken because none of the suspected assailants were
identified until after their confrontation with the Hongs, Chief
McEachin
said.
"We have zero tolerance on hate crimes," the chief said. "But with
a small
police department, you can't do much if people don't cooperate."
A far-right group associated with David Duke, the former Ku Klux
Klan
leader from Louisiana, has called on prosecutors here to press
murder
charges against Minh Hong. No charges were ever brought against
his
brother.
"This is an outrage," said David Jensen, a spokesman for the
group, the
National Organization for European-American Rights. "This man is
walking the streets today and being treated like a victim because
he is
Asian-American. Is it now acceptable for minorities to kill
European-
Americans for calling them names?"
The man at the center of the case, Mr. Hong, 26, lives in Seattle
and has
no criminal record. His family came to the United States from
Vietnam
20 years ago and started a restaurant, where Mr. Hong worked. He
is
now studying computer science while working at an Internet
company.
The police say Mr. Hong, at 5 feet 6 inches, was much smaller than
Mr.
Kinison, who was over 6 feet.
"This is a little meek person who thought he was going to die and
acted
out of self-defense," said Brett Purtzer, a lawyer for Mr. Hong.
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