Police Violence Against Asian American Women in South Brooklyn
Asian American violence during the late 1980s and 1990s was particularly strong in areas experiencing major demographic shifts. White residents feared what the integration of Asian immigrants into their neighborhoods would do to alter the status quo and consequently protested their presence with a vengeance. One area of New York City that exemplified this situation was South Brooklyn, which for most of the twentieth century stood as a quintessential white ethnic working-class enclave with a predominantly Italian and Jewish population. This changed in the years following the 1965 Immigration Act, which brought with it new Chinese and Korean immigrants who began settling in the neighborhoods of Bensonhurst, Gravesend, and Sheepshead Bay. In Bensonhurst specifically, the white population shifted from being 93.4% white in 1980 to 80.3% in 1990 while the Asian population jumped from just 2% to 10.8% in the same time span [1].
Commemoration event for victims of anti-Asian violence
CAAAV Digital Archive
These neighborhoods were quick to respond to the growing Asian presence, launching a massive 700,000 flyer distribution campaign in October 1987 demonstrating the anger and contempt they felt for their new neighbors. Slipped under doors and placed in mailboxes, these flyers warned of a Chinese and Korean “takeover” and urged residents to boycott Asian businesses and any realtors who sold to them. Chinese and Korean immigrants, according to the flyers, were devious invaders, quiet at the moment, but silently plotting how to claim the whole neighborhood for themselves. They were also secret drug dealers who would undermine the economic and social status of the neighborhood, devaluing property in the process. Their only purpose was to deprive white residents of South Brooklyn of their entire livelihoods [2].
The caricature stereotypes employed by the civilians living in South Brooklyn quickly seeped into the rhetoric employed by the local police precincts, who similarly came to view Asian residents as a perilous threat to their homes. In response, they engaged in violent and discriminatory behavior while interacting with the Asian American community, a phenomenon that was particularly felt by the area’s female population. Asian women, like their male counterparts, faced significant violence at the hands of the NYPD during the late 1980s and 1990s. Though the form of the attack or the nature of the slurs used differed between the genders, neither was spared from the vitriol police officers hurled their way. As South Brooklyn’s Asian immigrant population grew larger, so too did the depth of brutality.
Break The Silence: Expose Violence Against Women
CAAAV Digital Archive
In 1995, Susan Chan was arrested after attempting to provide interpretation between police and a Chinese couple during a landlord-tenant dispute in Bensonhurst. She was referred to by the police officer as a “Chinese bitch.” When she asked why she was being arrested, the officer sang “God Bless America” in response.
Ngan Oi Lee experienced a similar conflict with the police on April 6, 1996. Lee was watching her children at her ex-husband’s home in Brighton Beach when police officer Tacconi and his partner entered the building and tried to kick down the door to another apartment. When Lee offered to get the key to the apartment Tacconi yelled “Mind your own business!” He then forcefully twisted her arm, pushed her forward, and handcuffed her, commenting that “Chinese women are all bitches” [3]. She was then charged with obstruction of governmental administration. Tacconi and his partner testified that Lee, whose first language is Cantonese, coerced her children in English to lie and say the police had hit her during the dispute. These allegations were counteracted by Lee’s daughter during her testimony to the court. CAAAV worked with Lee to get her charges dismissed and to raise awareness in the Brooklyn Chinese community about the issue of police abuse and victims’ rights. On December 4, Lee was acquitted on wrongful charges of harassing a police officer [4].
Woman speaking at police brutality protest
CAAAV Digital Archive
In another heartbreaking case which occurred on May 27, 1996, Kui Fang Lo and her friend, referred to only by the acronym MYL, were abused by officers from the 61st Precinct. During a landlord-tenant dispute in Bensonhurst, Lo and MYL—who had come over to assist Lo in translating—called the police three times to help mediate. Every time the police arrived they refused to listen to Lo and MYL. When the two women tried to explain the situation, the police began to push Lo out of her own apartment. This prompted her friend to take photos of the action, which enraged the officer. In response, he pushed MYL to the ground, maced and twisted her arm, and screamed: “Bitch, you want it this way? [You] try and take pictures of me? You Chinese animals come to Brooklyn and take all the houses!” After both Lo and MYL were arrested and transported to the precinct, their cash was confiscated by the officers. “This is drug money—we’ll take it.”
After a few hours, Lo was released with a desk appearance ticket for disorderly conduct. MYL was further detained, where an additional mugshot of her was snapped, which one of the officers stated he would keep in his pocket to show the rest of the department what she looked like. Due to the pain the mace caused her, MYL spent more than 12 hours at the hospital. After being released, she was wrongfully charged with attacking an officer and spent two days in central booking. [5].
Empowered under Giuliani’s xenophobic policing policies and the Quality of Life campaign, NYPD officers responded to the perceived threat of an Asian takeover of predominantly white neighborhoods with intense violence, misogyny, and racism. South Brooklyn remained an area of the city where Asian Americans had to exercise extreme caution in simply going about their day-to-day business. Officers from the same precinct that mishandled Chan, Lee, and Lo’s cases would be the ones to arrive on scene the day Yong Xin Huang lost his life, further cementing this region of New York as a hotspot for police violence against Asian Americans [6].
Woman describes police attack at Brooklyn Community Forum
CAAAV Digital Archive
CAAAV persisted in its advocacy for Asian women, acknowledging and giving voice to the suffering they endured from the NYPD. On June 2, 1996, a Brooklyn Community Forum on the topic of police brutality and victims rights was organized by CAAAV and the autonomous Coalition for the Advancement of Police Accountability (CAPA) in Bensonhurst to educate local Chinese residents. CAAAV and CAPA provided the audience with legal advice and mock educational skits on challenging police brutality. At the meeting, an unnamed Asian woman described a police attack she had endured while sitting in front of a sign written in Chinese that stated: “There is no wealth in our silence. Do you still believe policing will protect our community or are you ready to fight against police brutality?” [7]. This meeting served as a vital source of coalition building, allowing members of New York’s Asian American community and other marginalized groups to come together in a safe environment to strategize on the best methods to secure their safety.
Brooklyn Community Forum
CAAAV Digital Archive
By sharing her story in a public setting, the woman at the forum demonstrated that New York’s female Asian American population refused to allow the injustices perpetrated against them to persist in silence. Her testimony highlighted the agency Asian American women have to fight back against their oppressors to protect their community from the dangers of police brutality. Women played a crucial role in CAAAV’s organizing efforts, with Yong Xin Huang’s sisters, Joyce and Qing Lan, remaining activists following the murder of their younger brother, assisting on new cases of police brutality, providing emotional and moral support to victims, offering organizational experience, and assisting with translation. Chan maintained relations with CAAAV after the conclusion of her case, going on to form CAPA in South Brooklyn. Lo and Lee also served as integral members of CAAAV, joining the adjacent Racial Justice Committee. Through the tireless work conducted by these women, CAAAV subverted the entrenched belief among the Asian American community that the issue of police brutality did not concern them. As CAAAV’s activism made crystal clear, Asian Americans, male and female, were the victims of police brutality, whether or not the community was willing to admit it [8].
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[1] Vivian Truong, “From State-Sanctioned Removal to the Right to the City: The Policing of Asian Immigrants in Southern Brooklyn, 1987-1995,” Journal of Asian American Studies, February 2020, 66.
[2] Truong, “From State-Sanctioned Removal to the Right to the City,” 66-67.
[3] CAAAV, “Violence Against Asian Women: Local Incidents,” CAAAV Voice Newsletter, Summer 1996, 6.
[4] CAAAV, “Victories for Chinese Victims of Police Brutality,” CAAAV Voice Newsletter, Summer 1997, 6.
[5] CAAAV, “Brooklyn, May 1996: Chinese Woman Calls Police To Mediate Landlord-Tenant Dispute—and Gets Maced and Beaten by NYPD,” CAAAV Voice Newsletter, Winter 1997, 4-5.
[6] Truong, “From State-Sanctioned Removal to the Right to the City,” 73.
[7] CAAAV, “Woman Describes Police Attack At Brooklyn Community Meeting,” CAAAV Digital Archive. https://archives.caaav.org/items/show/2075.
[8] CAAAV, “Immigrant Asian Women Become Community Leaders,” CAAAV Voice Newsletter, Winter 1997, 3.