Police Brutality on Unarmed Student.
This is a disturbing piece of news, San Jose police officers had brutally beaten a San Jose State University student Phuong Ho. Officers used batons to strike Ho at least 10 times, and also tasered the unarmed student. The incident began when Ho’s roomate Jeremy Suftin slopped soap on Phuong’s steak dinner. The two scuffled afterwards, at which point, Phuong grabbed a knife and said “In my country, I would kill you for this”. Suftin then called the police, and soon after, the beating ensued on the unarmed student. All this was captured on a video camera phone here.
Phuong Ho had no criminal record and was not resisting arrest, this beating was completely unnecessary and dehumanizing. A lot has progressed since the days of Rodney King’s incident, but I guess police brutality involving minorities is still here.
Obama Signs AAPI Initiative
Is it cliche to say that I am impressed with President Obama? On Oct. 14th, The president of the United States observes Diwali after signing an executive order restoring the white house Advisory Commission and Interagency Group to absolve issues that each specific AAPI communities have. Many Asian American representatives were present during the signing including Secretary of Veteran Affairs Eric Shinseki and Assistant Secretary of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs Tammy Duckworth. The initiative will provide more federal programs to help in areas such as education, health care, and economic status for AAPI communities.
Here is the link to the video, For those of you who are impatient, the President starts speaking at around 5:00 minutes.
Jay Sean’s “Down” is Up at #1 Spot
Jay Sean
Jay Sean’s hit single “Down” has reached the #1 spot recently, kicking off the Black Eyed Peas (finally) at the top spot after 26 consecutive weeks.
Jay Sean is a British pop singer with South Asian decent, and is the first person of such background to claim this title. Props and good luck to him on his debut album in the US – All or Nothing.
Rest In Peace Annie Le
Le's Family members at the funeral
As many of you have probably heard, Annie Le, the Yale graduate student in pharmacology was brutally murdered on September 8th, 2009. The last sighting of Le was five days prior to her wedding day, her body was found on her wedding day stuffed into the walls of her research building, where she performed experiments on mice to study the roles of enzyme. Her killer has been confirmed to be Raymond Clark III, details of his motives are still closed to the public, but it is most likely not due to romantic interests. Some disturbing details of her murder has been released, read about them here.
Her funeral was held at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in El Dorado Hills, California. Due to her Vietnamese background, some rites were spoken in Vietnamese and hymns. Her fiance Jonathan Widawski was present but did not speak publicly, he was seen wearing their wedding ring.
Our sincerest condolences to Annie Le’s family, her fiance and his family for this tragic loss from all of us at Next Generation Voices.
What are your opinions on this matter? What kind of punishment should the killer receive? Is it good that the media is putting so much attention on this case? Leave your responses below.