Who Killed Vincent Chin?

January 24, 2001 9:34 AM

Who Killed Vincent Chin?
posted by tiaka (7 comments total)

While Tanaka Tomoyuki isn't the most loved guy around, I did find the story through him, there is additional material here. I know it's kinda old, just that, I still can't understand what happened.
posted by tiaka at 9:44 AM on January 24, 2001

I don't understand what's puzzling you tiaka. Is it just that you're surprised by how evident the racism is in this instance?
posted by sudama at 11:25 AM on January 24, 2001

"[The judge] sentenced both defendants to three years' probation and a $3000 fine, explaining that all Ebens and Nitz intended to do was "administer a punishment" to Mr. Chin. "Had it been a brutal murder," Judge Kaufman added, "of course these guys would be in jail"

One of them held the guy's arms while the other took at least four full-strength swings with a baseball bat, splattering pieces of the man's head onto the street. Jesus, if that isn't brutal, what is? What other possible motivation would there be for the judge to let these guys off for what was a horrifyingly brutal murder?
posted by chuq at 12:33 PM on January 24, 2001

Just out of curiousity, Sudama, when is the last time you posted when you **weren't** assuming the presence of racism in any given situation :)
posted by Karl at 2:26 PM on January 24, 2001

If we're talking about the United States, racism is always present, to a greater or lesser extent. :)
posted by sudama at 2:36 PM on January 24, 2001

I studied that film for a class and I have to agree that the racism seems pretty evident to me. If any of you watched MTV's Anatomy of a Hate Crime, you'd see how wrong it was that those guys got away with the killing of Vincent Chin. Given the time when the fight took place, the courts would have been more prejudiced towards Asians. If this happened today to a gay person, given the push for awareness and gay rights in this day and age, the killers would have gotten a harsher sentence. Because it was an Asian who was killed, the courts didn't feel as much pressure to look out for human rights, knowing that the racial atmosphere at the time would allow them to make the judgement that they did.
posted by Mllebleu at 9:21 PM on January 24, 2001

The sickening thing about this entire case (other than the fact that Chin is dead) is that the killers were 1) a father and son team, 2) never required to spend more than a day in jail, 3) remain to be properly punished. Chin's mother was so upset over the lack of justice in her son's case that she packed her bags and moved back to China....
posted by miyu at 2:45 PM on January 25, 2001