An 84 year old Chinese man, Kang Chun Wong, is suing the
NYPD (New York Police Department) for $5,000,000 for roughing him up and wrongfully arresting him for jay-walking. According to the lawsuit, he is accusing the
police of grabbing him, pushing him against a wall, beating him, throwing him
to the ground, and causing him to briefly lose consciousness . Mr. Wong was treated at a hospital for his
head injuries.
This photo was not included in the American mainstream media
The police arrested Mr. Wong for jay walking, disorderly
conduct, and resisting arrest, but the district attorney ‘s office in Manhattan
decided not to prosecute.
This photo was not included in the American mainstream media
Op Ed
Looking at the pictures, I find it a bit ludicrous that one of
the officers put the baseball cap back on Mr. Wong briefly in an attempt to
cover up the old man’s look of pain and distraught. That was apparently not
working for the officers, as the baseball cap was later removed.
This photo was not included in the American mainstream media
Also, I find it interesting that WSJ (the Wall Street Journal) and the New York Daily News are
the only American mainstream news to report on this story. So, credit to the WSJ and Daily News for
this. (There are many other incidents of
assault on Asians, that I know of in New York, that were not even mentioned in
American mainstream media but were reported on Chinese news media.)
However, my
problem with both the WSJ and the Daily News is that they mostly showed the best
looking photos of Mr. Wong after his external injuries were recovered months
later. The incident occurred in January
2014, and they mostly showed the photos taken seven months later. With most of the photos of the actual incident excluded from the WSJ and Daily News (but you can see the photos of the actual incident above, in this report), I could see how some readers and commenters (on WSJ and Daily News) were led to believe that this is a frivolous lawsuit where the 84 year old is just seeking "quick money".
I am inclined to ask the question – Did WSJ and Daily News
publish this story to seek justice for this Chinese old man or did they do it
as an expedient way to criticize the Police Commissioner’s “broken windows”
policy? The criticism of this policy (of focusing on minor crimes to prevent major crimes) was in the conclusion of both
articles.
So that you can determine for yourselves, here are the articles from WSJ and the New York
Daily News:
Without lawsuits like this one brought against the authorities, I assure you that they will feel more free to commit more of this type of wrong doing and abuse of power. As I predict that this story would still not be shared much or get much attention, my final question to you is:
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