Channel 4 Report on Kim Huyn’s Case Against Police Harassment and Violence
Video opens with an advertisement. Report by Gabe Pressman of Channel 4 News, as part of a series on police brutality. Kim Huyn, Chinese-American 17 year old, boarded the bus in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn to commute to her high school, when the bus driver verbally assaulted her before two police officers physically and verbally attacked Huyn and unlawfully arrested her. CAAAV advocated for and supported Huyn as she pursued a case against the police department. Huyn describes her attack and subsequent arrest. After she showed her bus pass to the driver, he asked her why she “shoved it in his face;” Huyn, confused, told him she didn’t shove the bus pass, and asked him not to take his anger out on her. The driver became angrier, stopped the bus, and called a police officer who told her to go to the back of the bus. When she refused, the officer pushed her against the side of the bus for “resisting arrest.” Huyn, five-feet tall, insisted she could not move, let alone resist arrest as the over 6’-foot-tall police officer attacked her. A woman police officer shoved Huyn into a police car. When Huyn tried to explain how the other officer mistreated and hurt her, the woman told her to “shut up” before punching Huyn in the side of her face. She was unlawfully arrested for Disorderly Conduct, and the charges against were officially dropped in June 1999. Pressan interviewed Walter Mack, of NYPD Internal Affairs, who said he would look into the case of Kim Huyn and encouraged others to come forward when they experience police misconduct and violence. Huyn tearfully shared how her grades were affected as she struggled with the trauma from her attack. Pressman ended the report by informing the audience that the review board would not be able to investigate Huyn’s case for months.
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Report by Gigi Stone of NY1. Footage of the CAAAV Demonstration at the Wackenhut Detention Center, a private immigration detention facility in Queens. CAAAV member Jane Bai is interviewed, who speaks out against the inhumane treatment of the incarcerated immigrants who came to the United States seeking political asylum. Ai-Jen Poo advocated for the immediate review and release of those imprisoned in the center. Dolores Vargas, whose brother was detained in Wackenhut and participated in the hunger strike, shared how difficult his imprisonment has been for her and her family. At the time of the report, six people were still participating in the hunger strike.
Copyright is held by NY1. These materials are made available by CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities for educational and scholarly use. If you are the rights holder and believe our inclusion of this material on our website violates your rights (e.g. inclusion is not covered by the Fair Use or other exemption to a copyright holder’s rights), please contact us and we will take down the material.
Organizing For Justice Against Silver Palace
In a documentary-style video, the Chinese Staff and Workers' Association (CSWA) showcases striking Asian workers at the Silver Palace Restaurant in Chinatown. The workers organized into a union, but those who had joined were fired and it was not recognized by management. The fired workers picketed the restaurant. This video contains footage from those protests and interviews with Chinese-Americans connected to the struggle. Footage and interviews feature both Chinese and English.
Copyright is held by CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities
On May 26, 1994, Saleem Osman, a community organizer and CAAAV advocate, was beaten and arrested by two plainclothes police officers after attempting to settle a conflict between a white truck driver and a Pakistani cab driver. CAAAV immediately began organizing demonstrations protesting this case of police brutality. While District Attorney Robert Morgenthau had been consistently refusing to drop the charges against Osman for over a year, public pressure and multiracial organizing in support of Osman grew stronger as Osman's trial date neared. This pressure came to a head at the protest in this video, where many impassioned speeches were given on his behalf. Finally, just a few days later, the DA agreed to drop the case, dismissing the charges against Osman on July 10, 1995.
SPAM Eating Colonialism; Storyboard #7 - Tompkins Sq Park Interviews; #8 - Capitalism is Death, Lynne's Interview, Christina's Interview MASTER
Interviews with people of color from all walks of life discussing the presence of the processed meat SPAM in their lives and cultures. In Asian and the Pacific Islands, SPAM, as an American food, is a delicacy and a status symbol, a fact that, because of SPAM's presence in army rations, stems from America's military occupations in those areas. However, in America, it is often looked down upon as disgusting and unhealthy. These differing perspectives can be used against people of color by Americans to disparage them and their cuisine. All of those interviewed feel these factors in their family lives and their personal relationship with SPAM. These individual stories shed light on the individual impact of colonialism on the descendants of the colonized.
TV segments covering the backlash against police and the city of New York, led by CAAAV, in the aftermath of Yong Xin Huang's murder at the hands of police officer Steven Mizrahi and a grand jury's refusal to indict him.
Vivian Truong, Aliza Hornblass, Tess Derby
Copyright is held by NBC New York These materials are made available by CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities for educational and scholarly use. If you are the rights holder and believe our inclusion of this material on our website violates your rights (e.g. inclusion is not covered by the Fair Use or other exemption to a copyright holder’s rights), please contact us and we will take down the material.
TV segments covering both CAAAV's preparations for a protest outside the US Attorney's office to demand a federal investigation into the killing of Yong Xin Huang at the hands of an NYPD officer, since a city grand jury had refused to indict him, and the protest itself.
TV segment about a multi-issue protest in which CAAAV took part. The protest blocked multiple bridges and was against increases in tuition at state universities, cuts to health care, and police brutality.
Footage of speakers from a rally organized by CAAAV with other racial justice organizations. Speakers include family members of people killed by police and staff of the participating racial justice organizations. There is also footage of the accompanying march.
Footage from a racial solidarity protest with The National Congress for Puerto Rican Rights (NCPRR) against police brutality, held in front of the Manhattan Bridge and Colonnade. This was one of four actions organized in response to Guiliani’s 1995 city budget which proposed major cuts in social services while directing more funding to the police, taking place at the four primary bridges and tunnels into Manhattan at rush hour. Occurring one month after the murder of Yong Xin Huang, his mother and sisters participated in the protest, with Black and Latinx families of other young men who were killed by the NYPD. In the video, CAAAV and NCPRR protesters are seen chanting, arm in arm in front of the the Manhattan Bridge, some holding signs. The police begin to arrest protesters, using zip ties to restrain them; protesters who remain sit on the ground chanting. The camera cuts to protesters being forced into police vans and directly into a police station or courthouse. The camera cuts again and zooms into signs held by protestors outside, many of them in remembrance of Yong Xin Huang. Various speakers address the crowd. Others identified in the video are Saleem Osman, Joyce Huang, Altagracia Mayi.