gucci mane
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It has to be a SF/Oakland thing because asians and black people get along well here in NYC
Tian Sheng Yu Slaying
- Thread in 'General' Thread starter Started by nicedudewithnicedreams,
- Start date
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/thread
but hope they get what they deserve.
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It is definitely not just a Bay Area thing. There have been cases in NYC lately and we should all remember what happened in LA in the past. Just because you haven't seen it yourself doesn't mean it's not happening.
Quick update:
Lawyer: Punching-death defendant 'not evil'
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, April 24, 2010
(04-23) 18:50 PDT OAKLAND --Prosecutors had no grounds to file murder charges in the fatal beating of a 59-year-old San Francisco man on a downtown Oakland street, an attorney for one of the defendants said Friday, describing his client as "not an evil person."
"This is not a murder case. This is a case that, in our opinion, has been overcharged," Adanté Pointer, attorney for defendant Lavonte Drummer, 18, said after a brief hearing in an Oakland courtroom.
Pointer said the case could be "something else," but did not elaborate on any potential defense.
Drummer and Dominic Davis, 18, both Oakland residents, have been charged with murder in connection with what authorities called a random, unprovoked attack on Jin Cheng Yu, 27, last week and the subsequent fatal beating of his father, Tian Sheng Yu.
The two Oakland men, both of whom have juvenile arrest records, appeared before Judge Yolanda Gonzalez Rogers in Alameda County Superior Court but did not enter pleas during their second court appearance. They are being held without bail.
Davis' attorney, John McDougall, declined to comment.
Prosecutors say the men were drinking rum, were upset about their lives and were looking for someone to punch shortly before they attacked the Yus on April 16 as father and son were on their way to shop for coins at a jewelry store. Prosecutors based that account on statements they say Drummer and Davis made to police.
Authorities say the son was sucker-punched first as the elder Yu was parking his car on Broadway. When Tian Sheng Yu approached the two men near the Fox Theater on Telegraph Avenue and, in Mandarin, demanded an explanation for the attack, the assailants turned on him, police say.
Drummer told investigators that "he had anger and frustration over his life and planned on hitting someone," police wrote in a statement that outlined grounds for the arrests.
In an interview with KTVU-TV on Friday, Police Chief Anthony Batts said that "to say that they were frustrated with their life is, for me, a bunch of crap. The reality is, I grew up in a very tough neighborhood. That does not give you the right to take a life."
Batts said he planned to meet with community leaders to defuse tensions that have arisen in the wake of Yu's slaying.
Yu was Chinese American and the two defendants are African American. Prosecutors did not file hate-crime charges, saying the men hadn't picked out their victims for racial reasons.
Pointer said of the slaying, "This is not a hate crime. My client has expressed remorse as it relates to this loss of life. He's a young man that has found himself in the middle of a very tragic situation, and he's not an evil person."
The attorney added, "Intoxication may have played a part in this case."
Also Friday, Yu's widow, Zhi Rui Wang, 56, paid her respects to her husband during a Buddhist vigil outside the Fox Theater, exactly a week after he was attacked. After a monk provided a blessing, Wang laid a bouquet of white flowers on a table adorned with incense, oranges and apples.
"We should stop all the violence. We should be able to live safely and comfortably in the community," Wang said in Mandarin. "I promise you that I will stand strong, and my son will continue to look for work and study and contribute to the community."
She declined to comment on Pointer's statements, saying only that she believed in the justice system.
Quick update:
Lawyer: Punching-death defendant 'not evil'
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, April 24, 2010
(04-23) 18:50 PDT OAKLAND --Prosecutors had no grounds to file murder charges in the fatal beating of a 59-year-old San Francisco man on a downtown Oakland street, an attorney for one of the defendants said Friday, describing his client as "not an evil person."
"This is not a murder case. This is a case that, in our opinion, has been overcharged," Adanté Pointer, attorney for defendant Lavonte Drummer, 18, said after a brief hearing in an Oakland courtroom.
Pointer said the case could be "something else," but did not elaborate on any potential defense.
Drummer and Dominic Davis, 18, both Oakland residents, have been charged with murder in connection with what authorities called a random, unprovoked attack on Jin Cheng Yu, 27, last week and the subsequent fatal beating of his father, Tian Sheng Yu.
The two Oakland men, both of whom have juvenile arrest records, appeared before Judge Yolanda Gonzalez Rogers in Alameda County Superior Court but did not enter pleas during their second court appearance. They are being held without bail.
Davis' attorney, John McDougall, declined to comment.
Prosecutors say the men were drinking rum, were upset about their lives and were looking for someone to punch shortly before they attacked the Yus on April 16 as father and son were on their way to shop for coins at a jewelry store. Prosecutors based that account on statements they say Drummer and Davis made to police.
Authorities say the son was sucker-punched first as the elder Yu was parking his car on Broadway. When Tian Sheng Yu approached the two men near the Fox Theater on Telegraph Avenue and, in Mandarin, demanded an explanation for the attack, the assailants turned on him, police say.
Drummer told investigators that "he had anger and frustration over his life and planned on hitting someone," police wrote in a statement that outlined grounds for the arrests.
In an interview with KTVU-TV on Friday, Police Chief Anthony Batts said that "to say that they were frustrated with their life is, for me, a bunch of crap. The reality is, I grew up in a very tough neighborhood. That does not give you the right to take a life."
Batts said he planned to meet with community leaders to defuse tensions that have arisen in the wake of Yu's slaying.
Yu was Chinese American and the two defendants are African American. Prosecutors did not file hate-crime charges, saying the men hadn't picked out their victims for racial reasons.
Pointer said of the slaying, "This is not a hate crime. My client has expressed remorse as it relates to this loss of life. He's a young man that has found himself in the middle of a very tragic situation, and he's not an evil person."
The attorney added, "Intoxication may have played a part in this case."
Also Friday, Yu's widow, Zhi Rui Wang, 56, paid her respects to her husband during a Buddhist vigil outside the Fox Theater, exactly a week after he was attacked. After a monk provided a blessing, Wang laid a bouquet of white flowers on a table adorned with incense, oranges and apples.
"We should stop all the violence. We should be able to live safely and comfortably in the community," Wang said in Mandarin. "I promise you that I will stand strong, and my son will continue to look for work and study and contribute to the community."
She declined to comment on Pointer's statements, saying only that she believed in the justice system.
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THIS
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Well in that last thread, I didn't see it where it said Asians are completely innocent, or harmless. How come we can't play both cards? That doesn't make sense. All people can play both cards, so don't try to put Asians in one box. It shows that you don't know what you're talking about. THAT is the problem with ignorant classless Blacks in the hood. The ones that focus on one stereotype of Asians. That's why Asians are a target. They think that an Asian dude is an easy target because he's a nerd, or smart, and won't engage in a fight. You think all of a sudden, Black folks are knocking out Asian nerds on the bus or while they're walking, without preconceive notions of Asians from when they saw in grade school or high school? The ignorant Blacks that do these type of activities definitely are racist in my eyes. I was tested many of times in Oakland because I didn't sag my pants, or was rocking clothes that people would deem "tough". But I never had no problem standing up for myself, and for other Asians that had to deal with the racist BS that does go on in Oakland, and I'm pretty sure other place. You can blame it on lack of family, or economic background, but I blame it on the racist point of view, that some ignorant Blacks have of Asians.
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Family upbringing, education, and even economics have a lot to do with the "racist" views that people have. This applies to both Blacks and Asians. I don't believe people are born racists.
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- Aug 12, 2008
[h1]Newsom Convenes Black and Asian Leaders to Discuss Tensions[/h1]
Following three recent, violent attacks on elderly Asian-American people by young African-American men in both SF and Oakland, Gavin is holding a conference today to discuss growing tensions within the two communities. Tomorrow afternoon, Asian-American community leaders will be convening a public meeting on the steps of City Hall to draw attention to the issue as well.
We mentioned the tragic death last week of SF resident Tian Sheng Yu, 59, who was beaten in broad daylight in Oakland after he confronted two 18-year-old African-American men who had allegedly hit his son.
And you may also recall the T-line attacks on an 83-year-old Asian man and a 57-year-old Asian woman in recent months. The 83-year-old, Huan Chen, eventually died from his injuries and there remain no suspects in that case.
Newsom, for his part, says he is taking the disturbing trend "very, very seriously."
Good to know that the Mayor of San Francisco cares about this issue. Where the other cities like Oakland at?
Following three recent, violent attacks on elderly Asian-American people by young African-American men in both SF and Oakland, Gavin is holding a conference today to discuss growing tensions within the two communities. Tomorrow afternoon, Asian-American community leaders will be convening a public meeting on the steps of City Hall to draw attention to the issue as well.
We mentioned the tragic death last week of SF resident Tian Sheng Yu, 59, who was beaten in broad daylight in Oakland after he confronted two 18-year-old African-American men who had allegedly hit his son.
And you may also recall the T-line attacks on an 83-year-old Asian man and a 57-year-old Asian woman in recent months. The 83-year-old, Huan Chen, eventually died from his injuries and there remain no suspects in that case.
Newsom, for his part, says he is taking the disturbing trend "very, very seriously."
Good to know that the Mayor of San Francisco cares about this issue. Where the other cities like Oakland at?
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But they're racist though right? If a person is racist, are you gonna feel sorry for them, and blame it on their family upbringing, or lack of education, or economics? I don't think so. I know nobody said we should feel sorry for the perpetrators in this heinous act, but it almost sounds like an excuse or reason why these people did this. And for some people in the other thread, to say that Asians are not targets, is just BS. If it's not this incident where Asians are targeted, that doesn't mean Asians are not targets. I've seen this classless act countless times, and everytime it was provoked by an ignorant Black person. I read your original post, on how Blacks, and Asians shouldn't have a problem with each other, and it's true, we shouldn't. But most of the time, where I've seen fights between Asians and Blacks, it's because the Black person provoked it by making racist remarks, or picking on an Asian that he has no business picking on, at least all of my confrontations were. And you know what kind of animosity and hate this can breed in an Asian person overtime? I know the hate didn't eat away at me, but for some Asians, it's a reality that Black people are bad people. And I really can't blame him, because if someone took my dad away from my life like this incident. It wouldn't matter what color they are, but I would definitely have something or be cautious against that particular race.
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I do feel sorry for them. Lack of a proper family upbringing, lack of education (school is the best opportunity for students of all races to work with each other), and lack of economics (probably the main reason why the family upbringing was poor and why education was not stressed) are the main factors to why racist people become racists in the first place. If you even had just one of the factors mentioned in your life and especially good economics, race would not even be an issue in your life. Too busy trying to get that money and forgetting about ignorant things like judging people by their race.
I also feel you about your experiences. Personal experiences in life are clearly more effective in the development of our views on society. Reading the story of this latest incident will not make a normal person become racist and assume all Blacks are going to attack Asians. Seeing how you have experienced personally these similar incidents, I understand your point of view. But at the same time, I really hope you channel your frustrations into something positive. We all have our stories, where the victims were Blacks and Asians, but I hope the next story we experience is something positive. And the only way to do that requires effort from everyone. I am ready for some change.
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Just as there are a ton of ignorant, classless Asians...Telling me don't put Asians in a box, don't put Blacks in a box - I am a black man who lived in Oakland and now at Cal I don't mess with any Asians, or any other race. Maybe I am sick of Asians harassing/being rude to me, but I don't blame a whole group of people. If Asians are as strong and prideful as you stand up for yourself against Blacks, Whites, Browns etc, thats what I would do.
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If Asians are as strong or prideful?? Pleeeeease, we are strong and prideful, and we stand up for ourselves. I don't need no life coaching lesson from you about how I should stand up for myself. Give me some examples of Asians harassing Black people in Oakland to the level of this baffoonery. Where are the tons of ignorant, classless Asians going around jumping Black elderly people. I've never seen or heard of such an act in my life, and I've lived here for 20 years, you're reaching. You know Asians are a minority in Oakland. What benefit would it be for Asians to go start problems with the majority of the population. You may be going to Cal, but you sure as hell ain't making sense.
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- Aug 12, 2008
^ The statements above by you two do not represent the whole Black and Asian population...
Quick update:
[h1]Judge grants delay in fatal Oakland beating case[/h1]
The Associated Press
Posted: 04/26/2010 05:46:12 PM PDT
Updated: 04/26/2010 05:46:13 PM PDT
OAKLAND, Calif.—An Alameda County judge says two Oakland teenagers suspected in the random and fatal attack on a San Francisco man can postpone entering their pleas.
Judge Morris Jacobson granted the delay on Monday to Lavonte Drummer and Dominic Davis so their lawyers can have time to review police evidence in the fatal beating of 59-year-old Tian Sheng Yu.
Prosecutors say Drummer and Davis, both 18, were angry with life and looking for someone to punch when they attacked Yu and his 27-year-old son in downtown Oakland on April 16.
The men were charged with murder after the elder Yu died. Drummer's lawyer says his client should face manslaughter charges. Davis' lawyer has declined to comment.
The suspects are due back in court on May 17.
Quick update:
[h1]Judge grants delay in fatal Oakland beating case[/h1]
The Associated Press
Posted: 04/26/2010 05:46:12 PM PDT
Updated: 04/26/2010 05:46:13 PM PDT
OAKLAND, Calif.—An Alameda County judge says two Oakland teenagers suspected in the random and fatal attack on a San Francisco man can postpone entering their pleas.
Judge Morris Jacobson granted the delay on Monday to Lavonte Drummer and Dominic Davis so their lawyers can have time to review police evidence in the fatal beating of 59-year-old Tian Sheng Yu.
Prosecutors say Drummer and Davis, both 18, were angry with life and looking for someone to punch when they attacked Yu and his 27-year-old son in downtown Oakland on April 16.
The men were charged with murder after the elder Yu died. Drummer's lawyer says his client should face manslaughter charges. Davis' lawyer has declined to comment.
The suspects are due back in court on May 17.
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- Aug 12, 2008
Quick update:
http://cbs5.com/crime/oakland.beating.death.2.1663241.html
[h2]Town Hall Meeting Over Oakland Beating Death[/h2]
More than 200 people packed a town hall meeting Wednesday night at a restaurant in Oakland's Chinatown where Police Chief Anthony Batts joined community members to discuss violence and the death of downtown beating victim Tian Sheng Yu earlier this month.
"I come here today humbly, asking for an opportunity to win your respect," Batts told the standing-room-only crowd at the Peony Restaurant on Ninth Street.
The crowd consisted mostly of Chinese Americans but also included members of Oakland's Korean- and Vietnamese-American communities and other groups.
Yu's widow, Zhi Rui Wang, sat in the front of the room, flanked by Oakland police officers, including homicide Sgts. Mike Gantt and Gus Galindo, whose investigation led to the arrests of two young men in Yu's death. Both suspects have now been charged with murder.
Yu and his adult son were attacked for no apparent reason while walking near the Fox Theater the afternoon of April 16. Yu fell to the sidewalk, hitting his head. He died four days later.
Batts said he is "very much inspired by Mrs. Yu," who has called for peace and unity in the wake of her husband's death.
"I almost broke out in tears listening to what this family is going through," Batts said.
Gantt also said the case affected him deeply, and elicited applause from the crowd when he described working 48 hours straight, despite a loss in his own family that same weekend, to find Yu's killers.
However, angry murmurs broke out when Gantt told the room that race was not a factor in the attack. "I can tell you that was not an issue," he said.
There was clear discontent among some that the case was not charged as a hate crime.
Deputy Chief Jeff Israel offered numbers meant to show that Asian Americans are not targeted disproportionately in crimes.
He said Asian Americans represent only 5.3 percent of victims of aggravated assault in Oakland - a category that includes shootings, beatings and other attacks - with "no evidence of any of those crimes being hate crimes."
After hearing from police, Young Kong, a member of the audience, angrily grabbed the microphone and began to yell at police and the crowd.
"You are a whole bunch of chickens," he shouted. "This is a hate crime. Crime against what? Asian Americans. Violence against what? Asian Americans."
"A lot of people are afraid to talk about race," he said to loud cheers and applause.
Carl Chan, a Chinatown community leader and the organizer of tonight's meeting, quickly sought to readjust the meeting's tone.
"I just want all of us to calm down and talk," Chan said. "This is not a show. This is about unity."
Yu's widow left shortly after Kong's comments, escorted out the door by a police officer.
A number of the speakers said they or their loved ones had been victims of violent crimes, including Oakland attorney Virginia Sung, who said her friend had been attacked a few years ago.
"We need to support each other," Sung said. "We don't want to stir up racial tensions."
The suspects in Yu's death, Lavonte Drummer and Dominic Davis, both 18, are black. One speaker brought up a recent series of attacks on Asian Americans in San Francisco's Bayview District in which the attackers were also black.
Earlier in the meeting, while making the point that race was not a factor in the Yu case, Batts pointed out that Gantt, the investigating sergeant who worked overtime on the case, is black.
Batts said more officers are patrolling Chinatown since the attack on Yu, and that next week police will begin bringing together young people of different races for a dialogue.
The chief, who has been on the job for less than six months, said he was drawn to Oakland because of the bad shape it was in, saying more than 100 lives have been lost to violence each year over the past three decades.
He pointed out that the violence is spread across neighborhoods throughout the city.
"I am surprised the entire community is not outraged at the level of violence that is allowed to take place in this community," Batts said.
He said he wants to increase "beat integrity" by having officers work one regular beat they can get to know. To do that, Batts said, the department needs 75 to 100 more officers - an addition he said is unlikely to be funded in the current budget climate.
"I'm going to do the best I can to shift resources ... to focus on Chinatown," Batts said. "But there is a responsibility that the community has too."
He said residents need to act as eyes and ears and communicate with police.
The meeting, initially planned as a two-hour town hall, stretched for nearly four hours, wrapping up shortly before 9:30 p.m.
Chan said afterward he believes it went well despite the emotional undercurrents.
"We try to keep everything very focused and positive," he said.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=7a54346b5af80c001d6b898dd2598f55
Black on Chinese Killings Rare, Crime Stats Show
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- The killing in Oakland of Tian Sheng Yu, 59, by two 18-year-old African-American men two weeks ago has inflamed tensions between the Bay Area's black and Chinese communities.
Coming after a series of attacks on and around the T streetcar line in San Francisco's Bay View-Hunters Point neighborhood, it's also raised fears in the Chinese community of a wave of black-on-Asian violence.
But while tensions between the two communities may be running high, crime statistics show such incidents are exceedingly rare.
"Oakland's recent high year for homicide was 2006, with 149 killings. All but six victims were black or Hispanic," noted Frank Zimring, who directs the Center for Studies of Criminal Justice at UC Berkeley.
While the race of every perpetrator is not known, Zimring guesses that there was at most one homicide with a black offender and an Asian victim.
"The resentment is probably not rare, but the victimizations are," he said.
In San Francisco, where Asians outnumber blacks by a factor of five to one, blacks are more than 10 times more likely to be homicide victims, according to a racial breakdown of homicide deaths provided to New America Media by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD).
Between January 2007 and April 14, 2010, the SFPD data shows, 129 African Americans were murdered in San Francisco compared to 12 Asians. Asians were also five times less likely to be killed than Latinos and half as likely to be murdered as whites.
Indeed, a San Francisco Chronicle log of murders in the city shows that from January 2007 through September 2009, not a single Asian person was murdered in the Bay View, and an examination of news reports around each killing shows little to suggest a pattern of black on Asian violence.
Taken together, the deaths of a relatively small number of Asians in the city fail to show any pattern at all. In the Richmond District, Rosuke Yoshioka, 46, the long-time owner of Sushi-Man in Japantown, was stabbed to death in the parking lot of an OfficeMax by another Asian man, Peter Fong, in an apparently random act of violence. In the Excelsior, a member of the Salvadoran MS-13 street gang was arrested for shooting and killing Philip Ng, 24, and his friend Ernad Joldic, 21, as they waited in their car for a pizza at 2 a.m. In the Marina, a Vietnamese woman, Mai Banh, was bludgeoned to death in her nail salon. Her husband, Jeff Nguyen, was arrested and quickly admitted to the murder, telling police that he went into a rage and beat her to death.
Unlike the killing of Tian Sheng Yu, none of these killings was front-page news, and none has inflamed community passions the way his killing has.
Part of the reason, some say, is that Yu's killing comes in the context of a series of daily incidents on city streets and its public transit system.
In January, Huan Chen, 83, was kicked and beaten as he left the Muni stop at Third and Oakdale in the Bay View. He died about two months later.
Then in March, five teenagers surrounded a 57-year-old woman at the same Muni stop. Surveillance camera video from the second incident shows one of her assailants grabbing the victim by the neck and throwing her from the platform. A few days later, a group of teenagers assaulted a Muni rider on Third and Williams streets.
"Kids are tired of getting their iPods snatched and seniors are tired of being assaulted," said San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar, who has been attending meetings with the police department, district attorney, mayor's office, and community leaders since Yu's death.
Mar said he's optimistic that community pressure will lead to increased police enforcement but said he does not see signs that City Hall will take steps to reduce racial tensions.
"When we complain about being victimized, African Americans respond saying, 'We've been victimized for generations,'" he said. "That's not helpful in solving the problem."
Filmmaker Le Mun Wah, who's film "Color of Fear" explores racism between Asian and African-American communities, said tensions have been rising in part because Chinese Americans have been slowly changing the demographics of many Bay Area neighborhoods that were historically African-American.
"There's more tension between Asians and blacks in the Bay Area than between blacks and whites because there aren't many whites living in the Oakland flats or in Bay View-Hunters Point," he said. "We interact on a daily basis, but we don't interact with each other. We don't hire each other. We don't shop at each other's stores. We just tolerate each other."
In the absence of conversation, Wah said, stereotypes can take hold.
"African Americans see Asians buying up all these houses and opening liquor stores, and they think we're bringing all this money into the neighborhood and not contributing to it," he said. "At the same time, Asians have all of these stereotypes created by the white community."
For example, when he was in third grade, Wah said, his white teacher greeted him warmly on his first day at school, saying what a pleasure it was to have him in class, mentioning that she enjoyed teaching his older brother. When an African-American student walked into class on the first day of school, Wah recalled, the teacher said, "If I hear one word out of you, you're going to be kicked out."
"I thought, 'Wow,'" Wah said, "I guess he must have been a bad kid."
On the other hand, UC Berkeley Professor Frank Zimring said, "many low achieving minority kids in the Bay Area see Asian mobility and resent it."
Those stereotypes, Wah said, created by whites, are "instilled into us by our parents. They tell us to lock the doors when you go into a black community, they're going to kill you, they're going to rape you, et cetera."
The crime stats may point in another direction. But in the absence of communication, Wah said, it doesn't take much to spark a flashpoint between the two communities.
http://cbs5.com/crime/oakland.beating.death.2.1663241.html
[h2]Town Hall Meeting Over Oakland Beating Death[/h2]
More than 200 people packed a town hall meeting Wednesday night at a restaurant in Oakland's Chinatown where Police Chief Anthony Batts joined community members to discuss violence and the death of downtown beating victim Tian Sheng Yu earlier this month.
"I come here today humbly, asking for an opportunity to win your respect," Batts told the standing-room-only crowd at the Peony Restaurant on Ninth Street.
The crowd consisted mostly of Chinese Americans but also included members of Oakland's Korean- and Vietnamese-American communities and other groups.
Yu's widow, Zhi Rui Wang, sat in the front of the room, flanked by Oakland police officers, including homicide Sgts. Mike Gantt and Gus Galindo, whose investigation led to the arrests of two young men in Yu's death. Both suspects have now been charged with murder.
Yu and his adult son were attacked for no apparent reason while walking near the Fox Theater the afternoon of April 16. Yu fell to the sidewalk, hitting his head. He died four days later.
Batts said he is "very much inspired by Mrs. Yu," who has called for peace and unity in the wake of her husband's death.
"I almost broke out in tears listening to what this family is going through," Batts said.
Gantt also said the case affected him deeply, and elicited applause from the crowd when he described working 48 hours straight, despite a loss in his own family that same weekend, to find Yu's killers.
However, angry murmurs broke out when Gantt told the room that race was not a factor in the attack. "I can tell you that was not an issue," he said.
There was clear discontent among some that the case was not charged as a hate crime.
Deputy Chief Jeff Israel offered numbers meant to show that Asian Americans are not targeted disproportionately in crimes.
He said Asian Americans represent only 5.3 percent of victims of aggravated assault in Oakland - a category that includes shootings, beatings and other attacks - with "no evidence of any of those crimes being hate crimes."
After hearing from police, Young Kong, a member of the audience, angrily grabbed the microphone and began to yell at police and the crowd.
"You are a whole bunch of chickens," he shouted. "This is a hate crime. Crime against what? Asian Americans. Violence against what? Asian Americans."
"A lot of people are afraid to talk about race," he said to loud cheers and applause.
Carl Chan, a Chinatown community leader and the organizer of tonight's meeting, quickly sought to readjust the meeting's tone.
"I just want all of us to calm down and talk," Chan said. "This is not a show. This is about unity."
Yu's widow left shortly after Kong's comments, escorted out the door by a police officer.
A number of the speakers said they or their loved ones had been victims of violent crimes, including Oakland attorney Virginia Sung, who said her friend had been attacked a few years ago.
"We need to support each other," Sung said. "We don't want to stir up racial tensions."
The suspects in Yu's death, Lavonte Drummer and Dominic Davis, both 18, are black. One speaker brought up a recent series of attacks on Asian Americans in San Francisco's Bayview District in which the attackers were also black.
Earlier in the meeting, while making the point that race was not a factor in the Yu case, Batts pointed out that Gantt, the investigating sergeant who worked overtime on the case, is black.
Batts said more officers are patrolling Chinatown since the attack on Yu, and that next week police will begin bringing together young people of different races for a dialogue.
The chief, who has been on the job for less than six months, said he was drawn to Oakland because of the bad shape it was in, saying more than 100 lives have been lost to violence each year over the past three decades.
He pointed out that the violence is spread across neighborhoods throughout the city.
"I am surprised the entire community is not outraged at the level of violence that is allowed to take place in this community," Batts said.
He said he wants to increase "beat integrity" by having officers work one regular beat they can get to know. To do that, Batts said, the department needs 75 to 100 more officers - an addition he said is unlikely to be funded in the current budget climate.
"I'm going to do the best I can to shift resources ... to focus on Chinatown," Batts said. "But there is a responsibility that the community has too."
He said residents need to act as eyes and ears and communicate with police.
The meeting, initially planned as a two-hour town hall, stretched for nearly four hours, wrapping up shortly before 9:30 p.m.
Chan said afterward he believes it went well despite the emotional undercurrents.
"We try to keep everything very focused and positive," he said.
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=7a54346b5af80c001d6b898dd2598f55
Black on Chinese Killings Rare, Crime Stats Show
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- The killing in Oakland of Tian Sheng Yu, 59, by two 18-year-old African-American men two weeks ago has inflamed tensions between the Bay Area's black and Chinese communities.
Coming after a series of attacks on and around the T streetcar line in San Francisco's Bay View-Hunters Point neighborhood, it's also raised fears in the Chinese community of a wave of black-on-Asian violence.
But while tensions between the two communities may be running high, crime statistics show such incidents are exceedingly rare.
"Oakland's recent high year for homicide was 2006, with 149 killings. All but six victims were black or Hispanic," noted Frank Zimring, who directs the Center for Studies of Criminal Justice at UC Berkeley.
While the race of every perpetrator is not known, Zimring guesses that there was at most one homicide with a black offender and an Asian victim.
"The resentment is probably not rare, but the victimizations are," he said.
In San Francisco, where Asians outnumber blacks by a factor of five to one, blacks are more than 10 times more likely to be homicide victims, according to a racial breakdown of homicide deaths provided to New America Media by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD).
Between January 2007 and April 14, 2010, the SFPD data shows, 129 African Americans were murdered in San Francisco compared to 12 Asians. Asians were also five times less likely to be killed than Latinos and half as likely to be murdered as whites.
Indeed, a San Francisco Chronicle log of murders in the city shows that from January 2007 through September 2009, not a single Asian person was murdered in the Bay View, and an examination of news reports around each killing shows little to suggest a pattern of black on Asian violence.
Taken together, the deaths of a relatively small number of Asians in the city fail to show any pattern at all. In the Richmond District, Rosuke Yoshioka, 46, the long-time owner of Sushi-Man in Japantown, was stabbed to death in the parking lot of an OfficeMax by another Asian man, Peter Fong, in an apparently random act of violence. In the Excelsior, a member of the Salvadoran MS-13 street gang was arrested for shooting and killing Philip Ng, 24, and his friend Ernad Joldic, 21, as they waited in their car for a pizza at 2 a.m. In the Marina, a Vietnamese woman, Mai Banh, was bludgeoned to death in her nail salon. Her husband, Jeff Nguyen, was arrested and quickly admitted to the murder, telling police that he went into a rage and beat her to death.
Unlike the killing of Tian Sheng Yu, none of these killings was front-page news, and none has inflamed community passions the way his killing has.
Part of the reason, some say, is that Yu's killing comes in the context of a series of daily incidents on city streets and its public transit system.
In January, Huan Chen, 83, was kicked and beaten as he left the Muni stop at Third and Oakdale in the Bay View. He died about two months later.
Then in March, five teenagers surrounded a 57-year-old woman at the same Muni stop. Surveillance camera video from the second incident shows one of her assailants grabbing the victim by the neck and throwing her from the platform. A few days later, a group of teenagers assaulted a Muni rider on Third and Williams streets.
"Kids are tired of getting their iPods snatched and seniors are tired of being assaulted," said San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar, who has been attending meetings with the police department, district attorney, mayor's office, and community leaders since Yu's death.
Mar said he's optimistic that community pressure will lead to increased police enforcement but said he does not see signs that City Hall will take steps to reduce racial tensions.
"When we complain about being victimized, African Americans respond saying, 'We've been victimized for generations,'" he said. "That's not helpful in solving the problem."
Filmmaker Le Mun Wah, who's film "Color of Fear" explores racism between Asian and African-American communities, said tensions have been rising in part because Chinese Americans have been slowly changing the demographics of many Bay Area neighborhoods that were historically African-American.
"There's more tension between Asians and blacks in the Bay Area than between blacks and whites because there aren't many whites living in the Oakland flats or in Bay View-Hunters Point," he said. "We interact on a daily basis, but we don't interact with each other. We don't hire each other. We don't shop at each other's stores. We just tolerate each other."
In the absence of conversation, Wah said, stereotypes can take hold.
"African Americans see Asians buying up all these houses and opening liquor stores, and they think we're bringing all this money into the neighborhood and not contributing to it," he said. "At the same time, Asians have all of these stereotypes created by the white community."
For example, when he was in third grade, Wah said, his white teacher greeted him warmly on his first day at school, saying what a pleasure it was to have him in class, mentioning that she enjoyed teaching his older brother. When an African-American student walked into class on the first day of school, Wah recalled, the teacher said, "If I hear one word out of you, you're going to be kicked out."
"I thought, 'Wow,'" Wah said, "I guess he must have been a bad kid."
On the other hand, UC Berkeley Professor Frank Zimring said, "many low achieving minority kids in the Bay Area see Asian mobility and resent it."
Those stereotypes, Wah said, created by whites, are "instilled into us by our parents. They tell us to lock the doors when you go into a black community, they're going to kill you, they're going to rape you, et cetera."
The crime stats may point in another direction. But in the absence of communication, Wah said, it doesn't take much to spark a flashpoint between the two communities.
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[h1]2 plead not guilty in Oakland fatal beating[/h1]http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/05/18/BACG1DG55F.DTL
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
(05-17) 15:23 PDT OAKLAND --
Two men pleaded not guilty Monday to murder charges in the fatal beating of a 59-year-old San Francisco man on a downtown Oakland street.
Lavonte Drummer and Dominic Davis, both 18-year-old Oakland residents, entered their pleas before Judge Morris Jacobson of Alameda County Superior Court. The judge ordered both men to return to his Oakland courtroom June 28 for further proceedings.
"We have a lot of homework in front of us," Drummer's attorney, Adanté Pointer, said outside court. He said prosecutors had not yet turned over surveillance videos that police say captured the attack on Tian Sheng Yu.
Pointer said he and Davis' attorney, John McDougall, intend to "approach this with a vigorous defense."
Drummer and Davis are being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. Each has been charged with murder in connection with what authorities called a random, unprovoked attack on Jin Cheng Yu, 27, last month and the subsequent fatal beating of his father.
Prosecutors say Drummer and Davis were drinking rum, were upset about their lives and were looking for someone to punch shortly before they attacked the Yus on April 16 as father and son were on their way to shop for coins at a jewelry store. Prosecutors based that account on statements they say Drummer and Davis made to police.
Authorities say the son was sucker punched first as the elder Yu was parking his car on Broadway. When Tian Sheng Yu approached the two men near the Fox Theater on Telegraph Avenue and, in Mandarin, demanded an explanation for the attack, the assailants turned on him, police say.
Drummer told investigators that "he had anger and frustration over his life and planned on hitting someone," police wrote in a statement that outlined grounds for the arrests.
* As expected, not guilty pleas... Wonder what the defense will use though...
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
(05-17) 15:23 PDT OAKLAND --
Two men pleaded not guilty Monday to murder charges in the fatal beating of a 59-year-old San Francisco man on a downtown Oakland street.
Lavonte Drummer and Dominic Davis, both 18-year-old Oakland residents, entered their pleas before Judge Morris Jacobson of Alameda County Superior Court. The judge ordered both men to return to his Oakland courtroom June 28 for further proceedings.
"We have a lot of homework in front of us," Drummer's attorney, Adanté Pointer, said outside court. He said prosecutors had not yet turned over surveillance videos that police say captured the attack on Tian Sheng Yu.
Pointer said he and Davis' attorney, John McDougall, intend to "approach this with a vigorous defense."
Drummer and Davis are being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. Each has been charged with murder in connection with what authorities called a random, unprovoked attack on Jin Cheng Yu, 27, last month and the subsequent fatal beating of his father.
Prosecutors say Drummer and Davis were drinking rum, were upset about their lives and were looking for someone to punch shortly before they attacked the Yus on April 16 as father and son were on their way to shop for coins at a jewelry store. Prosecutors based that account on statements they say Drummer and Davis made to police.
Authorities say the son was sucker punched first as the elder Yu was parking his car on Broadway. When Tian Sheng Yu approached the two men near the Fox Theater on Telegraph Avenue and, in Mandarin, demanded an explanation for the attack, the assailants turned on him, police say.
Drummer told investigators that "he had anger and frustration over his life and planned on hitting someone," police wrote in a statement that outlined grounds for the arrests.
* As expected, not guilty pleas... Wonder what the defense will use though...
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ok .. Don't know about a future race war, and didn't even see the other thread but ...
2 kids kill a man ... beat up his son .. = 25 to life ... I dont even see a reason to talk race.
Why does NT focus on race so much. Than there seem to be "race warriors" on here. They are all about defending their race.
Most likely the tipsters who called in to say that they recognize the attackers were "black" too. Maybe even some of the people who helped break it up eventually.
A life is a lost, a son is fatherless. That's all I needed to hear.
2 kids kill a man ... beat up his son .. = 25 to life ... I dont even see a reason to talk race.
Why does NT focus on race so much. Than there seem to be "race warriors" on here. They are all about defending their race.
Most likely the tipsters who called in to say that they recognize the attackers were "black" too. Maybe even some of the people who helped break it up eventually.
A life is a lost, a son is fatherless. That's all I needed to hear.
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Man....had no idea this was going on (I don't read nor do I watch the news). Seems pretty damn unfortunate and it is hard not to play the race card, especially when it happens in Oakland. Like when Oscar Grant was killed at the Bart station. It just had to be in Oakland, victim had to black and the cop had to white. I know people were just pissed in general but I can only imagine how it would be if the races were switch in that scenario.
Hopefully things are handled properly in this case.
Hopefully things are handled properly in this case.
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Quick update...
http://www.ktvu.com/news/26807170/detail.html
[h1]Witness Testifies At Fatal Oakland Beating Trial [/h1]
Posted: 11:47 am PST February 9, 2011Updated: 12:14 pm PST February 9, 2011
OAKLAND, Calif. -- A Good Samaritan testified Wednesday that he broke up an unprovoked attack in broad daylight in downtown Oakland last April that led to the death of a 59-year-old San Francisco man because he thought "it was right thing to do." Testifying in the preliminary hearing for Lavonte Drummer, 19, and Dominic Davis, 18, two Oakland men charged with murdering Tian Sheng Yu, the witness - who asked that his name not be used - said he was driving his SUV near the intersection of 18th Street and Telegraph Avenue when he saw two men grappling with a young Asian male. "At first I thought it was horseplay, but then it was clear that he was being attacked because they were hitting him repeatedly," the witness said. "They were holding him and striking him with great force." "The victim was being savagely beaten and I interceded," he said. The witness said he honked his car horn, yelled profanities at the attackers and told them to stop. A video played in court showed the man making a U-turn onto the sidewalk where the attack was happening and the two suspects running away. The man said he first helped the young man he had seen being beaten, but then noticed another, older man on the ground who was conscious but appeared to be struggling to breathe. The witness said he then called 911. Oakland police and prosecutors said Yu, who was employed as a home health care worker, and his son, 27-year-old Jin Cheng Yu, were attacked in the 1800 block of Telegraph Avenue near the newly refurbished Fox Theater at about 3 p.m. on April 16 while they were heading to a pawn shop. Former Alameda County Chief Deputy District Attorney Tom Rogers, who filed the charges against Drummer and Davis, alleged that the two young men punched Tian Sheng Yu in the face almost simultaneously and that Yu fell and hit his head on the pavement, leaving him unconscious. Yu was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland, where he died on April 21 after being taken off life support. Rogers alleged that Drummer and Davis had been drinking and planned to attack someone because their lives weren't going well. Yu's widow, Zhi Rui Wang, attended the hearing.
Copyright 2011 by KTVU.com and Bay City News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/26807170/detail.html
[h1]Witness Testifies At Fatal Oakland Beating Trial [/h1]
Posted: 11:47 am PST February 9, 2011Updated: 12:14 pm PST February 9, 2011
OAKLAND, Calif. -- A Good Samaritan testified Wednesday that he broke up an unprovoked attack in broad daylight in downtown Oakland last April that led to the death of a 59-year-old San Francisco man because he thought "it was right thing to do." Testifying in the preliminary hearing for Lavonte Drummer, 19, and Dominic Davis, 18, two Oakland men charged with murdering Tian Sheng Yu, the witness - who asked that his name not be used - said he was driving his SUV near the intersection of 18th Street and Telegraph Avenue when he saw two men grappling with a young Asian male. "At first I thought it was horseplay, but then it was clear that he was being attacked because they were hitting him repeatedly," the witness said. "They were holding him and striking him with great force." "The victim was being savagely beaten and I interceded," he said. The witness said he honked his car horn, yelled profanities at the attackers and told them to stop. A video played in court showed the man making a U-turn onto the sidewalk where the attack was happening and the two suspects running away. The man said he first helped the young man he had seen being beaten, but then noticed another, older man on the ground who was conscious but appeared to be struggling to breathe. The witness said he then called 911. Oakland police and prosecutors said Yu, who was employed as a home health care worker, and his son, 27-year-old Jin Cheng Yu, were attacked in the 1800 block of Telegraph Avenue near the newly refurbished Fox Theater at about 3 p.m. on April 16 while they were heading to a pawn shop. Former Alameda County Chief Deputy District Attorney Tom Rogers, who filed the charges against Drummer and Davis, alleged that the two young men punched Tian Sheng Yu in the face almost simultaneously and that Yu fell and hit his head on the pavement, leaving him unconscious. Yu was taken to Highland Hospital in Oakland, where he died on April 21 after being taken off life support. Rogers alleged that Drummer and Davis had been drinking and planned to attack someone because their lives weren't going well. Yu's widow, Zhi Rui Wang, attended the hearing.
Copyright 2011 by KTVU.com and Bay City News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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i remember this story
beating up an old man cause "their lives weren't oging well."
beating up an old man cause "their lives weren't oging well."
antonlavey
Banned
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Racial tensions aside put these guys away for life. I have a no tolerance policy for such cowardly acts.
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Disgusting. Don't matter what race they are. Kill them.
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I was going to write a long statement, but this pretty much sums up how I feel.
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It's a wrap for those fools...get em outta here!
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underprivaleged black resentment towards the asian "model minority" stereotype is a definite reality in cities...i see it all the time and theres no way around it.
we are just reading edited and redited news reports so none of us know what really went down in this tragedy, but id bet my life that the murderers perception of asians didnt help.
we are just reading edited and redited news reports so none of us know what really went down in this tragedy, but id bet my life that the murderers perception of asians didnt help.
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QFT
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This happens TOO often.
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