Driving While Asian
Caveat: What I am about to write is based on my limited experience in attending a few hundred jury trials in New York and New Jersey and my limited experience of living in dozens of different households with blacks over the course of many years.
In 1996 Koua Fong Lee's Toyota Camry shot up an interstate ramp in St. Paul, Minnesota plowing into the back of an Oldsmobile that killed three people. With him in the car were his pregnant wife, 4-year-old daughter, father and brother on their way home from church.
Lee insisted he couldn't stop his car. He was not drunk, on drugs, insane, an unlicensed driver, a repeat traffic offender, or intentionally homicidal yet a jury filled with the usual idiots convicted him on two counts of criminal vehicular homicide and a judge sentenced him to eight years in prison.
With the recent recall of Toyotas for unstoppable acceleration, Lee is trying to get his case reopened (1).
First of all, I don't care if his car had a gas-pedal problem. He may or may not get his case renewed, many judges even if they know a person is innocent, are loath to reopen cases despite new evidence. What bothers me is that this was an accident. There was no criminal intent. He should never have been sent to jail.
At the top of this article is a typical American jury. Usually they are bored, asleep, inattentive and apathetic to most cases at bar. Nobel prize winners, rocket scientists, mensa members are rarely found in jury pools. If the Saint Paul jury was anything like that in northern New Jersey, it most likely had a few blacks on it; in fact Saint Paul has a higher proportion of African-Americans to whites than the US average. In addition, according to the city's own website (2), Saint Paul’s Hmong population is one of the largest contingents of urban Hmong [an ethnic group from the mountainous regions of Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Burma] in the United States.
Why is this significant and what does it have to do with convicting someone of criminal homicide who was only guilty of being in an accident?
Two things:
- Many, many, many urban blacks loathe Asians, see my article Blacks are more Racist than Whites.
- Lee is an Asian.
So if there were even one black person on the jury I have no doubt that hatred of Asians made it difficult to arrive at a not guilty verdict. In addition, many less-educated blacks, in my limited experience, equate a car accident where someone dies to a purposeful murder. Readers may recall the Crown Heights Riot of August 1991 [Wiki] where a Jewish driver accidentally killed a black boy and and before an ambulance arrived within a few minutes of the accident, the Jewish driver was being beaten and pulled out of the station wagon by three or four black men.
I cannot tell you how many times I have heard in my life whenever someone died in a traffic accident, a black person offering the view that the person driving should pay with his life, even though there was no criminal action by the driver. And if the driver is Jewish or Asian? Forgetaboutit.
Again, this is just my limited, NY Metro area, life experience. Your experience and mileage may vary.
ENDNOTES
(1):
Huffington Post, Koua Fong Lee: 'Toyota Defense' May Free Jailed Minnesota Man
"I know 100 percent in my heart that I took my foot off the gas and that I was stepping on the brakes as hard as possible," Lee said in an interview Wednesday at the state prison in Lino Lakes. "When the brakes were looked at and we were told that nothing was wrong with the brakes, I was shocked."
Lee's accident is among a growing number of cases, some long resolved, that are getting new attention since Toyota admitted its problems with sudden acceleration were more extensive than originally believed. Numerous lawsuits involving Toyota accidents have been filed over the recent revelations, and attorneys expect the numbers will climb.
...
Lee said he never had driven before immigrating to the United States and settling in St. Paul's large Hmong community in 2004. He was working to get his high school equivalency degree before the crash, and he's still working on it in prison. He wept as he described the impact of his imprisonment on his wife and four children, ages 8, 5, 3 and 2, who are on welfare.
(2):
stpaul.gov, Ethnic Population Growth in Saint Paul
Between 1990 and 2000, the population statistics for Saint Paul showed decreases, increases, and status quo population data:
* The Caucasian population decreased from 81% to 64%.
* The Asian population, primary comprised of Hmong and Vietnamese, increased from 7% to 12%.
* Saint Paul’s Hmong population is one of the largest contingents of urban Hmong in the United States.
* The African-American population grew from 7% to 11%.
* The Latino population, the fastest growing population in the United States, grew from 4% to 8% in Saint Paul.
