Murder of Vincent Chin

Murder Of Vincent Chin

Vincent Jen Chin (simplified Chinese: 陈果仁; traditional Chinese: 陳果仁; pinyin: Chén Guǒrén; May 18, 1955 – June 23, 1982) was a Chinese American beaten to death in June 1982, in the enclave of Highland Park, Detroit, Michigan, United States. The perpetrators were Chrysler plant superintendent Ronald Ebens and his stepson, Michael Nitz. The murder generated public outrage over the lenient sentencing the two men originally received in a plea bargain, as the attack, which included blows to the head from a baseball bat, possessed many attributes consistent with hate crimes. Many of the layoffs in Detroit's auto industry, including Nitz's in 1979, had been due to the increasing market share of Japanese automakers, leading to allegations that Chinese American Vincent Chin received racially charged comments before his death. The case became a rallying point for the Asian American community, and Ebens and Nitz were put on trial for violating Chin's civil rights. Because the subsequent Federal prosecution was a result of public pressure from a coalition of many Asian ethnic organizations, Vincent Chin's murder is often considered the beginning of a pan-ethnic Asian American movement.

Read more about Murder Of Vincent Chin:  Homicide, Legacy, Documentaries

Famous quotes containing the words murder, vincent and/or chin:

    We don’t murder, we kill.... You don’t murder animals, you kill them.
    Samuel Fuller, U.S. screenwriter. Sergeant (Lee Marvin)

    Lincoln, six feet one in his stocking feet,
    The lank man, knotty and tough as a hickory rail,
    Whose hands were always too big for white-kid gloves,
    Whose wit was a coonskin sack of dry, tall tales,
    Whose weathered face was homely as a plowed field.
    —Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943)

    Between my chin and throat
    his mouth slipped over and over.
    Still between my arm and shoulder,
    I feel the brush of his hair.
    Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)