HIGHLAND PARK MARKET BOSS ARRESTED TRIAL
According to an interview by Michael Moore for the Detroit Free Press, after Chin gave the dancer a generous gratuity, Ebens shouted, "Hey, you little motherfuckers!" and told the stripper, "Don't pay any attention to those little fuckers, they wouldn't know a good dancer if they'd seen one." Įbens claimed that Chin walked over to Ebens and Michael Nitz and threw a punch at Ebens' jaw without provocation, although witnesses at the ensuing trial testified that Ebens also got up and said, "It's because of you little motherfuckers that we're out of work," referring to the Japanese auto industry, particularly Chrysler's increased sales of captively-imported Mitsubishi models rebadged and sold under the Dodge and now-defunct Plymouth brands, and Nitz's layoff from Chrysler in 1979, despite the fact that Chin was of Chinese descent, not Japanese. The fight which would lead to the killing of Vincent Chin started at The Fancy Pants Club on June 19, 1982, when Chin took umbrage at a remark that Ebens made to a stripper who had just finished dancing at Chin's table (Chin was having a bachelor party, as he was to be married eight days later). He was engaged, and the wedding date set for June 28, 1982. At the time of his death, he was employed as an industrial draftsman at Efficient Engineering, an automotive supplier, and working weekends as a waiter at the former Golden Star restaurant in Ferndale, Michigan. Vincent Chin graduated from Oak Park High School in 1973, going on to study at Control Data Institute, and Lawrence Tech.
In 1971, after the elderly Hing was mugged, the family moved to Oak Park, Michigan. Throughout most of the 1960s, Chin grew up in Highland Park. After Lily suffered a miscarriage in 1949 and was unable to have children, the couple adopted Vincent from a Chinese orphanage in 1961. His father earned the right to bring a Chinese bride into the United States through his service in World War II. He was the only child of Bing Hing "David" Chin (a.k.a. 3.1 Inaction by the government and advocacy groupsĬhin was born on May 18, 1955, in Guangdong province, Mainland China.As a result, the case has since been viewed as a critical turning point for Asian American civil rights engagement and a rallying cry for stronger federal hate crime legislation.
HIGHLAND PARK MARKET BOSS ARRESTED LICENSE
The president of the Detroit Chinese Welfare Council said it amounted to a "$3,000 license to kill" Chinese Americans. The lenient sentence led to an outcry from Asian Americans. While Ebens and Nitz never denied the brawl, they claimed the fight was not racially motivated and said they did not use racial epithets.
They were ordered to pay $3,000 and serve three years' probation, with no jail time. Įbens and Nitz were charged with second-degree murder, but bargained the charges down to manslaughter and pleaded guilty in 1983. Chin was taken to Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where he died of his injuries four days later. Resentful workers laid the blame for recent layoffs on Japanese competition. domestic market hastened the decline of Detroit's Big Three. Ebens and Nitz blamed him for the success of Japan's auto industry.Īt the time, Metro Detroit was a powder keg of racial animosity toward Asian Americans, specifically as the penetration of Japanese automotive imports in the U.S. They apparently assumed Chin was of Japanese descent and witnesses described them using racial slurs as they attacked him.
Ebens and Nitz assailed Chin following a brawl that took place at a strip club in Highland Park, Michigan, where Chin had been celebrating his bachelor party with friends in advance of his upcoming wedding. Vincent Jen Chin ( Chinese: 陳果仁 – June 23, 1982) was a Chinese American draftsman who was beaten to death in a racially motivated hate crime by two white men, Chrysler plant supervisor Ronald Ebens and his stepson, laid-off autoworker Michael Nitz. Violation of civil rights (2 counts each)īoth perpetrators sentenced to three years of probation and $3,780 fineĮbens sentenced to 25 years in prison overturnedĮbens ordered to pay $1.5 million to Chin's family, Nitz ordered to pay $50,000 Second-degree murder (dropped after plea deal) Nitz not guilty of violation of civil rights Resentment over unemployment in auto industry, blamed on Japanese imports anti-Asian sentiment racismĮbens guilty of one count of violation of civil rights ( hate crime) overturned
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