"Remember" Yong Xin Huang Posters
Title
"Remember" Yong Xin Huang Posters
Description
This photograph dated July, 1995 was taken at the memorial service of 16-year-old Yong Xin Huang at PS 124 in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Huang’s middle school portrait can be seen in a black frame bordered with purple flowers. The line “WE SHALL NEVER FORGET” is partially covered by a white sign that reads “Remember” written in black marker. The service was held a day before Huang’s would be 17th birthday.1
On the morning of March 24, 1995 in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, Huang was playing with a pellet gun in the backyard of a friend’s home when a neighbor called the police. Officer Steven Mizrahi arrived on the scene and struggled to decipher whether or not the pellet gun was a real weapon. According to police spokesperson, Doram Tamari, the two then “engaged in a struggle” and a round from Mizrahi’s Glock 9mm “discharged from the officer’s gun” leaving Huang fatally wounded from a gunshot to the head.2
Huang’s friends later testified that Huang was not resisting and in fact had his hands on a wall, but police claimed that Huang attempted to fight back resulting in an accidental discharge of Mizrahi’s gun.3 The City Medical Examiner's Office refused to release their autopsy report, but an independent autopsy revealed that Huang had suffered injuries to the face and been shot from point blank range. Yet, Charles Hynes, the Brooklyn District Attorney at the time, determined to not charge Mizrahi, sparking CAAAV to protest alongside Huang’s family against police brutality.4
On April 25th, one month after Yong Xin Huang’s death, thousands of protesters organized in downtown Manhattan to demand an end to police brutality and the city’s increasing presence of government-sanctioned law enforcement. Huang’s mother was soon joined by Black, Latinx and fellow Asian American families who too were protesting the painful feeling of having lost a loved one in the hands of law enforcement.5 Although the death of Yong Xin Huang brought division between minorities and the police, it ignited a shared pain among families who lost loved ones due to racially motivated police brutality.
Bibliography:
1 Centro Archive, CUNY Hunter College, Accessed March 28, 2021.
https://centroca.hunter.cuny.edu/Detail/objects/18460
2 Hevesi, Dennis. “Boy, 16, With Pellet Gun Is Killed by Officer.” The New York Times, 25 Mar. 1995.
3 Fuchs, Chris. “Two Decades After Cop Shot Her Brother Qing Lan Huang Speaks Up for Akai Gurley”, April 2016. Retrieved from
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/two-decades-after-cop-shot-her-brother-qing-lan-huang -n554146
4 Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, “Cop Bullet Ends Teens Life” CAAAV Voice newsletter, Spring 1995, 7.
5 Truong, From State-Sanctioned Removal to the Right to the City: The Policing of Asian Immigrants in Southern Brooklyn, 1987–1995,” 77.
On the morning of March 24, 1995 in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, Huang was playing with a pellet gun in the backyard of a friend’s home when a neighbor called the police. Officer Steven Mizrahi arrived on the scene and struggled to decipher whether or not the pellet gun was a real weapon. According to police spokesperson, Doram Tamari, the two then “engaged in a struggle” and a round from Mizrahi’s Glock 9mm “discharged from the officer’s gun” leaving Huang fatally wounded from a gunshot to the head.2
Huang’s friends later testified that Huang was not resisting and in fact had his hands on a wall, but police claimed that Huang attempted to fight back resulting in an accidental discharge of Mizrahi’s gun.3 The City Medical Examiner's Office refused to release their autopsy report, but an independent autopsy revealed that Huang had suffered injuries to the face and been shot from point blank range. Yet, Charles Hynes, the Brooklyn District Attorney at the time, determined to not charge Mizrahi, sparking CAAAV to protest alongside Huang’s family against police brutality.4
On April 25th, one month after Yong Xin Huang’s death, thousands of protesters organized in downtown Manhattan to demand an end to police brutality and the city’s increasing presence of government-sanctioned law enforcement. Huang’s mother was soon joined by Black, Latinx and fellow Asian American families who too were protesting the painful feeling of having lost a loved one in the hands of law enforcement.5 Although the death of Yong Xin Huang brought division between minorities and the police, it ignited a shared pain among families who lost loved ones due to racially motivated police brutality.
Bibliography:
1 Centro Archive, CUNY Hunter College, Accessed March 28, 2021.
https://centroca.hunter.cuny.edu/Detail/objects/18460
2 Hevesi, Dennis. “Boy, 16, With Pellet Gun Is Killed by Officer.” The New York Times, 25 Mar. 1995.
3 Fuchs, Chris. “Two Decades After Cop Shot Her Brother Qing Lan Huang Speaks Up for Akai Gurley”, April 2016. Retrieved from
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/two-decades-after-cop-shot-her-brother-qing-lan-huang -n554146
4 Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, “Cop Bullet Ends Teens Life” CAAAV Voice newsletter, Spring 1995, 7.
5 Truong, From State-Sanctioned Removal to the Right to the City: The Policing of Asian Immigrants in Southern Brooklyn, 1987–1995,” 77.
Date
July 1995
Contributor
Harrison Vijay Tsui
This post was completed as coursework for “Bitter Melon: Race, Foodways, and Urbanisms of Asian America” at New York University, taught by Minju Bae.
This post was completed as coursework for “Bitter Melon: Race, Foodways, and Urbanisms of Asian America” at New York University, taught by Minju Bae.
Rights
Copyright is held by CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities
Format
Photograph
Identifier
Photo494
Files
Citation
“"Remember" Yong Xin Huang Posters,” CAAAV Digital Archive, accessed May 17, 2024, https://archives.caaav.org/items/show/2070.