NCJ Number
188330
Editor(s)
Andrea McArdle,
Tanya Erzen
Date Published
2001
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This paper chronicles the protests against police violence in New York City's Chinatown following the 1995 police killing of Yong Xin Huang, a 16-year-old Chinese American from Brooklyn.
Abstract
Eyewitness accounts from the scene and an independent autopsy report indicate that the unarmed Huang was forced by police officer Steven Mizrahi face-first into a glass door while holding his gun at the back of the youth's head. As the glass was shattered, the officer's gun discharged, killing Huang. Following the killing, activists organized a series of demonstrations to pressure the Brooklyn district attorney to present a strong case before the grand jury called to consider possible criminal charges against the officer. When the grand jury failed to return an indictment, scores of protesters from around the city descended on the steps of the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office to condemn the decision. Among these protesters was a strong showing of Chinatown workers: sweatshop workers, restaurant workers, and vendors. Their presence represented both a demonstration of solidarity with the Huang family and an expression of frustration over the intense and brutal policing that the working poor of the Chinese community experience daily. The police brutality protests coincided with labor protests against Chinatown's largest restaurant. The extent to which Chinatown's poor population develops a solidarity in protesting abuses against them by the Chinatown power structure will determine the shape of local politics in Chinatown in the new century and offers the best case for empowering Chinatown's most disenfranchised members. 44 notes