Police beating of Asian student in California angers many Americans

The police beating of a Vietnamese student from San Jose State University in California has angered many Americans and reminded them of the similar beating of Rodney King, a black motorist, in Los Angeles in 1991, which aroused nationwide protests.

On Sunday, the San Jose Mercury News put a video taken with a cell phone on the web site, which documents extensive force as Phuong Ho, 20, a San Jose State University student from Vietnam, was taken into custody on Sept. 3 after San Jose police responded to a disturbance call.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, police reports said officer Kenneth Siegel used his baton, and officer Steven Payne Jr. used his Taser gun to subdue Ho, who was described by the police as violently kicking and refusing to comply with their orders as they attempted to place Ho in handcuffs.

But the video taken by one of Ho's roommates documents more than 10 baton strikes as well as Taser gun usage.

The video shows that the final baton strike was delivered after Ho was handcuffed.

Ho told ABC7 news that the police shoved him up against a wall, knocked his eyeglasses off his face, threw him to the ground and then started beating him.

"This is wrong. I can't imagine something like this would happen in this country," he said.

Roger Clark, a policing expert and retired lieutenant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, said the last baton strike was enough to warrant a felony charge.

"It takes me back to the day I saw the Rodney King video," Clark said. In the King case, four white policemen were tried over the beating but were initially acquitted, leading to six days of rioting in Los Angeles.

San Jose's Vietnamese American community is already angry over the fatal police shooting of Daniel Pham, a mentally ill man, in May. The new incident would bring their anger to a new level.

Under pressure, San Jose police officials said on Sunday that the four officers have been placed on administrative leave while the department reviews the incident.

The city mayor, police chief and a city councilman all voiced their concern and promised that a department review would be fair and complete.

"I don't think you can watch that video and not be very concerned about what you've seen," Police Chief Rob Davis told the press.

He said key questions will be what occurred before the video was started, whether any force was needed and, if so, whether the force used was excessive.

Experts who reviewed the videotape at the request of the newspaper said they were concerned that Ho can be heard moaning and crying as he was on the ground, rather than offering substantial resistance.

Those experts expressed alarm that Ho appears to have been handcuffed before the final baton strike occurs.

This incident started on Sept. 3 when Ho's roommate Jeremy Suftin slopped soap on Ho's dinner steak. The two scuffled and Ho picked up a steak knife, saying "I would kill you" for what Suftin had done.

Suftin called the police. Ho quickly dropped the knife and was not armed when the police arrived, according to witnesses. But police reports stated he ignored commands to stand in a hallway asthe officers entered his room to check his wallet for identification.

When Ho tried to follow officer Siegel into his room, officer Payne pushed him into a wall in the hallway, forced him to the floor and attempted to handcuff him, according to the police report.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed issued a statement Sunday saying he was "troubled by the contents of the video."

Police Chief Davis said in a statement: "For me it's a question: Even if in a given situation someone is resistant and not complying, was the force we saw in that video justified and necessary?"

Stewart Kwoh, president of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles, told Xinhua Monday that he hopes there will be a full, unbiased investigation of the event.

During the 1991 Riots after the Rodney King trial, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center helped many victims. The organization is a pioneer in the Asian community for civil rights and in the fight for hate crimes against Asians.

Kwoh said every day there are some kinds of discrimination against Asians in the U.S.. He said it is too early to say the beating of Ho by police officers is motivated by racial discrimination, but a full investigation should be conducted and if there are violations from the police side, those officers should be brought to justice.

He said police officers have extreme power, therefore while enforcing the law, they should be cautious in using force, especially to those who are unarmed.

Source: Xinhua