The Quincy Four are Karen Chen, Howard Ng, Quan Manh Thin, and Tat Man Yuen. They are Americans of Asian descent facing charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Two of their friends who witnessed the incident and spoke out about it, Mei Cheung and Joanna Ng, also received the award.

The charges against the four stem from an April 30 encounter with police in Quincy, a city just south of Boston. The cops assaulted the four while they were returning home from a traditional Chinese wedding engagement party. One officer pepper-sprayed three of them in the eyes. Three of the cops roughed up Chen, barely five feet tall, giving her a black eye, a swollen face, and numerous bruises. One of the four victims, the prospective groom, was knocked unconscious.

The Dow Fund, named in honor of the first Asian American admitted to the bar in this state, is an affiliate of the Asian American Lawyers Association of Massachusetts. The fund also awarded the Quincy Four a grant to help defray legal expenses.

In presenting the award, attorney Zenobia Lai, the Fund’s president, praised the recipients for their decision to fight the charges against them by the police.

“They could have pled and made the case go away,” Lai said. “But they know that they are not just fighting for themselves, but to prevent another Asian American, another person of color, another immigrant, from suffering the same injustice.”

Speaking for the recipients, Chen, an organizer for the Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), thanked the fund for its recognition and generosity.

“The whole thing has been somewhat ironic,” Chen said. “I was told by several people to just keep quiet and it would go away. But how could I do that when I work as an organizer and encourage people to stand up for their rights every day? ”

Zenobia Lai is also a leader of the Support Committee for the Quincy Four and director of the Greater Boston Legal Services Community Law Project.

“Since the first pretrial hearing in June, the court proceedings have centered on discovery requests by the defense attorneys for the four individuals,” Lai told the Militant. “This is important because it can help establish motive. For example, the attorneys have asked for any internal affairs reports on the police officers involved. Were any of the cops involved in similar incidents against people of color or immigrants? The district attorney has claimed that they no longer have custody or control over such records because they have been transferred to the FBI charged with investigating the complaints filed by the victims.”

In response to publicity surrounding the incident, the city of Quincy has gone on a campaign to bolster its image, including a request for an FBI investigation.

“What the community demanded was an open public investigation with community participation,” Lai said. “The FBI and the Quincy police department are both cops. The FBI rarely finds police misconduct, even in pretty egregious cases. The kind of investigation we seek has to come out of public pressure.”

Another part of the city’s attempt at face-lifting was a highly publicized seminar, featured prominently in the October 26 Boston Globe, for some of Quincy’s elderly Asian residents.

“The Asian American population of Quincy grew by nearly 150 percent in the 1990s and continues to grow,” Lai said. “Today more than 20 percent of its population is Asian, many of whom are likely to be newer immigrants in no position to be activists.”

Asked about the timing of the incident, Lai said: “Remember what was happening then. We were living through a series of massive pro-immigrant rallies around the country. There was a call to immigrant workers to go on strike on May Day. The fact that the assault of these four Asian Americans took place the day before the May Day strike may be a coincidence. But I don’t think so.

“It is likely that police officers received prep talks at their headquarters at the time to be on the prod against undocumented immigrants—to find them, lock them up, deport them.

“It just so happens that in this instance the police picked on the wrong people, including someone completely comfortable in English and educated as an activist.

“If you cannot speak English it’s difficult. Who needs to relive the event only to be insulted and called a liar?

“As the case stands now,” Lai noted, “it’s very likely that it will go to trial. When we get to that point we need a strong showing of community support. We have collected over 1,000 petitions and sent them to the mayor, the police chief, and district attorney. We need to keep collecting them and sending them in.”

The next pretrial hearing is scheduled for December 22 at Quincy District Court.

Lai said that letters of protest can be sent to the Quincy mayor, police chief, and Norfolk County district attorney. A sample is posted on the CPA web site, www.cpaboston.org. Petitions can be obtained from the Chinese Progressive Association, 28 Ash St., Boston, MA 02111; Tel: (617) 357-4499; E-mail: justice@cpaboston.org. Donations to help defend the four can be sent to the CPA and earmarked “legal defense for the Quincy 4.”
 
 
Related articles:
N.Y. protesters demand justice in brutal killing by the police
Murder indictment dropped against N. Carolina cop who shot unarmed teenager in house raid
New Jersey: relatives of victims of police brutality speak out  
 
 
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