Racial Justice Committee

The spring of 1996 marked a key turning point for CAAAV as its organizational practices shifted with the establishment of the Racial Justice Committee (RJC) from a case-by-case-centered approach to long-term power building. Under CAAAV’s original organizing strategy, police brutality victims received support from staff members and active community members as they fought for justice, developing their knowledge of the law, media relations, rally formation, and running petition drives. However, once their cases finished, CAAAV had no structure to maintain relations with these individuals. Rather than losing contact entirely, CAAAV began to directly foster the leadership skills of the community, especially past victims of police brutality, giving them the confidence and skills to tackle systemic issues. This community-centered approach empowered former victims to become activists for their peers, leading the charge for change on their own terms. The RJC was a major component of this change, combining community organizing and leadership development with activism, coalition building, and policy analysis to combat institutional violence enacted through police brutality [2].

Three main objectives were established to guide the RJC

1. Advocating for victims and continuing to keep pressure on the NYPD and the DA’s office
2. Organizing Racial Justice Day together with the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights 
3. Working in coalition with other community organizations to get a Congressional hearing on police brutality

Momentum for the RJC gained steam in July 1996 after two startling incidents of police violence rocked New York’s Chinese community. On July 19, 13 Chinese youth were harassed by 5th Precinct officers in Chinatown’s Sara Roosevelt Park where they were searched with no probable cause and subsequently informed to vacate the area. When one of the youths attempted to take down the officer’s badge number, his head was smashed against the police car and he was kicked in the crotch. Three were arrested and charged for the false crime of littering. Later that night, Kanog Lu and some of his friends encountered more police officers from the 5th Precinct following them in their car. One officer pushed Lu from the back and when he turned around to stop the officer, he was handcuffed, maced, and had his head smashed against a newsstand. While detained another officer smashed Lu’s head multiple times against the wall resulting in serious injuries [3].

Around 11 am one week later on July 27, a man known as WC was wrongfully arrested and brutalized by officers from the 5th Precinct. WC called the police for assistance in mediating a verbal argument he was engaged in while attempting to return a defective phone card he had bought from a newsstand vendor who refused to refund him. When three officers from the precinct arrived, they ordered WC to leave. While trying to explain the situation an officer pushed him away and shouted: “Fuck this Chinese guy.” This caused WC to respond: “Why do you fight me? Don’t touch me!” The officer and his partner were angered by WC’s comment and showed it by slamming his head against the police car. When they saw that his head was bleeding they shoved him in their car and called for a supervisor to take him to the precinct. There, he was denied a translator, spent two days in central booking, and was wrongfully charged with disorderly conduct [4].

Responding to the egregious behavior displayed by the NYPD during these incidents, the RJC organized a rally on September 15 in front of the 5th Precinct. Deputy Inspector Thomas Chan, the second-highest-ranking Chinese-American official in the NYPD, was informed of the event beforehand but chose not to be present at the precinct to address community concerns during the rally. Instead, he attended the San Genaro festival in Little Italy. Chan responded to the RJC’s actions with hostility, speaking with Chinese news reporters after the demonstration to wrongfully defame Lu as a gang member and denounce CAAAV as an organization that supported gangs, criminalizing the protesters for fighting to improve the safety of their community. In doing so, Chan hoped to undermine efforts to inspire community support for Lu’s case and efforts to combat police brutality [5]. Chan’s resistance to CAAAV and the RJC only further fueled these organizations’ bases which remained committed to ending anti-Asian violence at all costs. When members of CAAAV and CAPA met with Chan and confronted him about the harmful rhetoric he was spreading about Lu in the papers, Chan was unable to supply any evidence to back up the statements he made, cementing that his words were based not in reality but on the stereotypes that define Asian American criminality. 

“Most Asians won’t fight back. Maybe it’s the language problem. They are too quiet. Silence is not golden. You have to stand up for rights… I’d like the police to know that the Asians will fight back” [6].

Members of the RJC refused to back down, fighting to ensure the true extent of police brutality’s reach became crystal clear to the public. Through the establishment of a database of police brutality cases, CAAAV and the RJC were able to better educate the local community, public officials, and the broader public about the severity of anti-Asian violence. Significant attention was paid to conducting outreach efforts directed toward Chinatown's youth population surrounding the issue of police brutality and criminalization. Given the prevalence of police violence incidents in public spaces like parks which tend to be predominate spaces for youth socialization, the RJC sought to instruct Asian youth on how to best handle interactions with the police. The RJC also worked to bring youth into their organizing efforts, encouraging them to sign petitions and participate in rallies. 

Research into campaign donations by the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association (PBA) in the past decade to District Attorney offices aided CAAAV and the RJC in substantiating claims that the PBA and judicial system were working hand in hand to ensure police officers stayed immune from criminal prosecution. CAAAV also acknowledged the need to combat police brutality on multiple levels from both a local and national perspective. For this reason, the RJC committed itself to getting a Congressional hearing on police brutality in the hopes of changing a police system in desperate need of national solutions [7].

The RJC also played a vital role in commemorating Racial Justice Day on April 7, 1997. The day began with a rally at City Hall which was followed by a march through Chinatown and the Lower East Side before concluding in Washington Square Park. Participant organizations included CAAAV, the National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights, Las Nietas, the Audre Lorde Project, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, and the Student Power Movement. Various speakers, including Yong Xin Huang's sister Joyce, spoke movingly about the loss of their loved ones to police brutality. Racial Justice Day sought to raise awareness of racial injustice and advocate for policy changes promoting equality. CAAAV and the RJC joined forces with New York’s Black and Latino communities during the day's events as a means of combating racially-motivated police violence across multiple demographic groups, showing solidarity with individuals also impacted by systemic racism.