chinatown hate crime assailants arrested

Some follow-up on that hate crime beating that happened last week in New York's Chinatown, where some racist white guys jumped out of a car, shouted racial slurs and started beating up random Asian guys for no apparent reason... The assailants have been caught! Police have arrested Michael Ostrosky and Steven Sackaris, both age 22, on hate crimes charges of aggravated assault, assault in the 2nd degree and menacing in the 3rd degree. Got this press release from OCA's New York chapter, courtesy of the good people of Fallout Central:

For Immediate Release

Contact Information:
Vicki Shu Smolin, President: 646-263-6044
Elizabeth R. OuYang, Executive Vice President: 718-596-0143

OCA-NY COMMENDS NYPD FOR ARREST OF HATE CRIME ASSAILANTS; URGES DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE TO VIGOROUSLY PROSECUTE TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW

July 6, 2007 - The Organization of Chinese Americans, New York Chapter (OCA-NY) commends the NYPD Fifth Precinct Hate Crimes Unit for seriously pursuing the July 2 hate crime in Chinatown with the arrest of Michael Ostrosky and Steven Sackaris, both age 22 on hate crimes charges of aggravated assault, assault in the 2nd degree and menacing in the 3rd degree. OCA-NY now urges New York County's District Attorney's office to vigorously prosecute the individuals on all charges.

On July 2, two Chinese American men, Mr. Cheng and Mr. Jia were beaten up by two white males, using racial slurs (f***ing c***), telling them to "Go back to your country" and "This is for the Korean War," according to reports in the World Journal and The New York Post. The racial incident resulted from a traffic dispute, although both Chinese men were walking and one victim was merely a bystander.

Comments Elizabeth R. OuYang, OCA-NY Executive Vice President, and a practicing civil rights attorney, "This unfortunately is the most frequent type of hate crime - where the victims are assaulted and not hospitalized and the perpetrators flee. In these cases, victims often don't report the crime and the police regard these incidents as low priority. We therefore highly commend the diligence of the Fifth Precinct in pursuing this case."

In a letter to New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, Vicki Shu Smolin, OCA-NY President, stated that these individuals "had the audacity to commit these hate crimes against Mr. Cheng and Mr. Jia in the middle of Chinatown and then flee. Therefore, a strong signal must be sent that hate crimes against Chinese Americans will not be tolerated. They must be prosecuted to the fullest extent under the law."

Over the past year, OCA-NY has worked on a number of issues dealing with hate crimes, including addressing the root causes of hate crimes. Earlier this year, OCA-NY helped ensure that the two assailants in the Douglaston, Queens hate crime incident were charged with hate crimes. The Douglaston case also resulted from a traffic dispute. OCA-NY has also been working with the media to fight the negative portrayal of Asian Americans that can lead to bigotry, and more seriously, hate crimes. In addition, in its efforts to prevent hate crimes at all levels, OCA-NY has launched a hate crimes prevention project that empowers youth to speak out against hate crimes, using art as an activism tool.

These assheads have the audacity to roll into a crowded Chinatown street and just get away with whatever the hell they want? It really demonstrates how low and little Ostrosky and Sackaris must think of Asians. What, did they think that the community would just shut up and let this happen? Hell no. I hope the district attorney's office prosecute these guys to the fullest extent possible. They need to go down for this.