NYC XYZ fyi: here are some additional stories covering the same event. I picked buttociated Press because its a national press source so its is less influenced by local politics. I picked the New York Times because its is a large corporate conservative rag which tends to diss asian americans . I picked News Day because it is a small local community rag of the area. The more interesting story is by News Day which I listed first. The News Day story is probably the best story of the three because it provides more insights and more interesting facts that the other two news sources miss completely. Case in point, even when the prosecution ASKED for a STIFFER BAIL be set for the alleged buttailants. The local judge. Queens Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grosso, IGNORED the request and posted a much LOWER BAIL for both buttailants. So one of the alleged buttailants, Paul Heavey of Little Neck, is now back roaming the streets. The other alleged buttailant Kevin Brown of Flushinss, whose bail was set at 25,000, is still in jail. Reportedly, Kevin Brown was awaiting to appear in another trial for another road rage buttault charges that occured last May before this latest attack. Istm Kevin Brown was going through the proverbial criminal revolving door of local judical system when he decided to attack again... ####################################################### Their hometown horror - Victims in Qns. bias attack say they 'felt defenseless' SCOTT SHIFREL, WARREN WOODBERRY JR. and BILL HUTCHINSON. New York DAILY NEWS Bruised and bandaged, three Asian teens targeted in a bias beating in Queens lashed out yesterday at their two alleged attackers - one of whom is already back on the streets. "I'm very angry because this happened in my neighborhood, two blocks from my house," said one of the victims, Reynold Liang, 19, a Chinese-American who grew up in quiet Douglaston, where the vicious alleged hate crime occurred early Saturday. Both of Liang's eyes were nearly swollen shut and he has eight sbreastches in his head from the pummeling he allegedly received from Paul Heavey, 20, and Kevin Brown, 19, the son of a retired city cop. "They called me certain names like 'g--k,' " said Liang. "I felt defenseless." Liang's friend John Lu, 19, a student at SUNY Albany, said he was shocked that he could be targeted for a hate crime in the neighborhood he grew up in and considered safe. "For something like this to happen to me is so unexpected," said Lu, who had a bandage over sbreastches to his forehead. Fueling the victims' anger was the release yesterday of Heavey, of Little Neck, on $10,000 bail. Brown, of Flushing, remained in jail on $25,000 bail. Some local politicians derided Queens Supreme Court Justice Joseph Grosso for setting what they called low bail after prosecutors asked for $150,000 bail for Brown and $75,000 for Heavey. Both Brown and Heavey are charged with a hate crime, aggravated harbuttment and reckless endangerment. Brown was also charged with resisting arrest and buttaulting a cop. Brown has a pending case for allegedly using a hammer to attack a man and his son, both white, during a road-rage incident in May. But Brown's attorney Brian Kennedy insisted the fight between the suspects and the young Asians had nothing to do with race. He charged one of the victims fueled the fight by brandishing the Club - a steering-wheel lock. "The case was a traffic incident, which escalated into a mutual fight," Kennedy said. He said Brown and Heavey both deny using ethnic slurs during the incident or targeting the young men because they are Asian. But a witness backs the account of the victims, who say they were in Liang's white Lexus, stopped at a red light at Northern Blvd. at Cross Island Parkway about 2:30 a.m., when Brown and Heavey pulled up, screamed racial slurs and told them to "get out of our neighborhood." When Liang tried to drive away, his car was rammed from behind. He pulled over at Doug.laston Parkway and 44th Ave., two blocks from his house, prosecutors said. Lu and another friend, David Wu, 19, got out to inspect the damage and were immediately attacked. Liang said he tried to defend himself with the Club, but it was snatched away and used to buttault him. DemoVigil: Number the Dead Sep 17 NYCBEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Demo-Vigil: Number the Dead - Sep 17 - NYC Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Number the Dead - Aug 9, 2006 646-246-1219 NUMBER... "I saw my friends getting hit," Liang said. "I tried to help them, but in the end I got tackled down. I was beaten. I was hit like 30, 40 times." "It's necessary to send a strong message that the community does not tolerate this kind of hateful violence and bigotry," said City Councilman John Liu (D-Queens). ################################################################ Asian man describes Queens Beating, recalls racial slurs Deepti Hajela. buttociated Press. August 14 2006 NEW YORK -- An Asian man injured in what authorities are calling a hate crime said he was more infuriated than scared by the attack despite the numerous times he was hit. "The more I got hurt, the more I got angry," Reynold Liang said at a news conference Monday. "At the same time, I was so defenseless." Liang, 19, was driving with three Asian friends in the Douglaston section of Queens early Saturday when they were rammed by a car carrying two white men shouting racial slurs and cursing, police and prosecutors said. Liang said he drove away but was attacked by the men when he pulled over to check his car for damage. In the fight that followed, Liang said, he was hit 30 to 40 times and bashed with a heavy steering wheel lock he had grabbed in self-defense. "I was getting stomped on and hit on the head," said Liang, who had puffy black eyes and other bruises. The two whites, Kevin Brown, 19, of Flushing, and Paul Heavey, 20, of Little Neck, have been charged with buttault as a hate crime in the attack on the four Chinese Americans. Brown and Heavey were arraigned Sunday. They also face charges of reckless endangerment and criminal mischief as hate crimes. Brown also is charged with resisting arrest. Brown's lawyer, Brian Kennedy, described the altercation as a traffic incident that escalated into a fist fight. He said one of the Asians went back to his car, retrieved a club and started to bash Heavey with it. "Brown jumped in to save his friend, who was being beaten," Kennedy said. Heavey was being represented by the Legal Aid Society, which didn't immediately return a telephone message seeking comment Monday. The news conference was held in the office of City Councilman John Liu, a Queens Democrat and the first Asian Pacific American to be elected in the city. Liu denounced the attack. Accompanying Liang at the conference were friends John Lu, who had a bandage over his right eye, and David Wu. The lifetime residents of New York said they were upset by the attack and had never seen anything like it before. When asked if the buttault changed how they felt about their borough, Liang said, "Definitely not. I love Queens." The ethnically diverse borough, however, is the site of two of the city's most infamous bias attacks. Last summer, a young black man was beaten about the head by a white teenager with a baseball bat in the Howard Beach section. That attack was a reminder of another notorious incident in the same neighborhood that inflamed racial tensions in the city about 20 earlier. In the earlier case, a black man whose car had broken down was banely struck by another car while trying to escape a group of white attackers. ################################################################ Accusations of a Hate Crime Expose Tensions MICHELLE O'DONNELL. The New York Times. August 15, 2006 An attack on four Asian-American men in Douglaston, Queens, that prosecutors are calling a hate crime has opened a breach in the unsteady truce between the neighborhood's mostly white population and the prospering Chinese and Korean immigrants who have moved to the area in recent years, residents said yesterday. "There's an undercurrent of suspicion of the new immigrant - what are they doing, what are they building, what are they putting in that store?" said Susan Seinfeld, the district manager of Community Board 11, which includes Douglaston, Bayside and Little Neck, neighborhoods where the number of Asian residents has increased in the past 10 years. Still, Ms. Seinfeld said, "it's not been brought to that level ever before." Early Saturday, four New Yorkers of Chinese descent were attacked on Douglaston Parkway by two white men shouting racial slurs, according to the authorities. Two of the Chinese-Americans - Reynold Liang and John C. Lu, both 19 - were beaten, Mr. Liang with a steering wheel locking device. Two white men, Kevin M. Brown, 19, of Auburndale, and Paul A. Heavey, 20, of Little Neck, have been charged with buttault and hate crimes. Some residents of Douglaston and Bayside said the attack was an isolated event; others spoke of an undercurrent of animosity toward the Korean and Chinese residents. Jennifer Kim, a teacher from Douglaston Manor, said she suspected that white residents talked about Asians behind their backs. But James Giogaia, ducking into a Bayside Starbucks where the menu was printed in Korean, said he had lived in the neighborhood for 24 years and had never seen a problem. In the last five years, the commercial corridor along Northern Boulevard from Flushing to Douglaston has undergone a major transformation, with an influx of Korean restaurants, salons and markets. Korean entrepreneurs ready to expand out of an increasingly crowded downtown Flushing found themselves unable to build west on Northern Boulevard because Chinese businesses had already staked out that ground, according to Pyong-Gap Min, a professor of sociology at Queens College. Instead, they went east, about as far as Bell Boulevard, razing and retrofitting older buildings along the way. Members of earlier immigrant groups have taken notice. "The entire strip of Northern Boulevard in the past four or five years went from German and Italian to Korean," said a 24-year-old Italian-American man working at Ceriello Italian Fine Foods on Douglaston Parkway. He did not want to give his name. "It definitely doesn't shock me," he said of the attack. For years, the signs in Korean and Chinese that adorn new businesses have been a major irritant to white residents, with many complaining that they make them feel like outsiders. City Councilman Tony Avella, who represents the area, has introduced legislation to require store owners to include English translations on signs. Still, many businesses have voluntarily added the translation, Dr. Min said, an indication that most immigrant business owners want to get along in their new neighborhoods. Dr. Min, who is Korean, recalled instances of bias when he moved to Bayside two decades ago, including the placing of nails in the tires of an Asian friend's car. "Now it's much better," he said. "All of my neighbors are Chinese. I am surrounded by Chinese. I feel very comfortable there." Indeed, the population of Douglaston, Little Neck and Bayside is now estimated to be about one-third Asian, Dr. Min said. The other two Chinese-Americans who were with Mr. Lu and Mr. Liang, David Wu, 19, and Wing Chung Poon, escaped injury. Mr. Heavey was released on $10,000 bail, while Mr. Brown remained in custody, a spokeswoman for the Correction Department said yesterday. According to the Queens district attorney's office, Mr. Brown's bail was set at $30,000 bond or $20,000 cash. To Mr. Liang, a student from Douglaston, there was little question that racism was at play. "They did it because I was Asian," Mr. Liang told reporters at a news conference at the Flushing office of City Councilman John C. Liu. On the advice of their lawyers, neither he, Mr. Wu nor Mr. Lu would discuss details of the events leading up to the attack. "I definitely don't want this to happen to anybody else," Mr. Liang said. "Queens is a nice area. It's my home." ################################################################
|
