Victim of Fort Lee police van debacle speaks out

Kevin Jun says he still suffers from post-traumatic stress



Nearly three years after being locked up, forgotten and left overnight in a New Jersey police van in freezing temperatures, one of the victims is speaking out, saying he still suffers from post-traumatic stress, including fear of cramped spaces and a distrust of police officers. Really, can you blame him?

Fort Lee man haunted by 15 hours he spent locked in police van

20-year-old Kevin Jun was one of five teens (he was 17 at the time) who were rounded up at a party in March 2011 by Fort Lee police officers, taken to the station, then forgotten and left locked outside in a police van for fifteen hours. They were stuck there with no food or water, no bathroom and no way to call out. As temperatures dipped into the 20s, Jun says he was only wearing a t-shirt.

Cops settle lawsuit with teens left overnight in police van

Three teens will each receive $120,000 under a settlement reached with Fort Lee Police Department



Remember those guys in New Jersey who got locked up in a police van, forgotten and left overnight in the freezing cold? Three of those teens filed a lawsuit against the Fort Lee Police Department and over a dozen officers, and will receive $120,000 each under a settlement reached with the department.

3 boys locked in Fort Lee police van overnight will split $360,000

Adam Kim, Liam Eisenberg and Kevin Jun were among over dozen teens who were rounded up and placed in a police van when cops broke up a house party in March 2011. According to their complaint, five remained in the van while officers took the others into the station... and never came back. The five teens, who were mostly Asian, were left behind were locked in overnight. They also allege that the cops called them racial epithets.

Somebody f*%ked up. So it wasn't a big surprise when these guys sued, alleging that the officers intentionally inflicted emotional distress, were negligent and showed racial bias.

After ten years, publisher apologizes for Rickshaw Rally

LifeWay offers an apology for racist religious curriculum. It only took a decade.

Long time readers might remember the Rickshaw Rally controversy.

In 2003, LifeWay Christian Resources published an Asian-themed Vacation Bible School curriculum called "Far Out Rickshaw Rally - Racing Towards the Son." Fraught with racist, stereotypical imagery, the materials were criticized by Asian American Christian leaders, who led a campaign to get LifeWay to halt use of the curriculum, which was designed for children. You can still see the old Reconsidering Rickshaw Rally website archived on Geocities.ws.

For the most part, LifeWay didn't give a crap and the issue pretty much died off. Until this week.

The company is apparently under new management. On Wednesday -- ten years after the controversy -- LifeWay president and CEO Thom S. Rainier apologized for Rickshaw Rally via video message at the Mosaix conference in Long Beach, California, a gathering of about 1,000 multiethnic church leaders.

You can watch the video of Rainier's apology here. And here's the transcript:

An Open Letter from the Asian American Community to the Evangelical Church

On cultural insensitivity and reconciliation in the church



This has been a long time coming... Recent incidents of repeated, offensive racial stereotyping of Asians in the evangelical Christian church have compelled a group of Asian American leaders to come together and speak out against this growing gap in the church's understanding and pursuit of racial reconciliation.

I've covered a number of these incidents here over the years, from VBS curriculum, to youth skits, to general Christian trade books, in which Asians have been mocked, caricatured and stereotyped in the name of... I don't know what. Jesus? I didn't see a whole lot of Jesus in any of those things.

Most recently, well-known Christian leader Rick Warren posted an image of a Chinese Red Guard on Facebook, in a failed attempt at humor. When it was pointed out why this imagery might be culturally insensitive, he was dismissive, ultimately issuing one of those perfunctory sorry-if-you-were-offended non-apologies.

And last week at Exponential West, a popular Christian conference attended by thousands, programming included a video featuring a white person mimicking Asian accents and kung fu fighting (do I really have to describe this further?), prompting criticism from Asian American attendees. Organizers have since apologized and promised to remove the video from future conference content.

All of this, and the mounting concern over the church's troubling treatment of Asian Americans and Asian culture, have prompted leaders to draft and post An Open Letter to the Evangelical Church from the Asian American Community, to draw awareness and dialogue to the situation.

Here's the letter:

Third teen sues over 15-hour police van lockup

Revisiting this case again... Remember that story from a couple of years back about a group of New Jersey teens who were rounded up by cops at a house party, forgotten, and left locked in a van outside police headquarters overnight? You bet your ass that lawsuits were filed. And now, a third teenager has added a lawsuit to the pile: Teen locked overnight in police van sues Fort Lee.

Kevin Jun was one of five teens who were rounded up at a Fort Lee house party, brought to police headquarters in the back of a police van, and promptly forgotten about and left in there for fifteen hours -- locked in the vehicle without food, water, bathroom facilities or warm clothing. Whoops.

Jun has filed a lawsuit against the Fort Lee Police Department and about a dozen officers, alleging that his civil rights were violated when he was falsely arrested, unlawfully detained and left to rot in that police van. On top of that, cops at the scene apparently used racial slurs to refer to the Asian Americans.

Manslaughter plea agreement in beach beating death

This case bums me out. This week in Illinois, a young man reached a manslaughter plea agreement in the 2011 death of a 17-year-old Chicago boy: Plea reached in LaPorte County fatal fight.

20-year-old James Malacek pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter, battery and aggravated battery, and agreed to serve 145 days in prison for the fatal punch that killed Kevin Kennelly. The rest of the four year sentence would be served on electronic monitoring.

According to police, Malacek punched Kennelly, who may have been trying to break up a fight at a 4th of July beach party. The altercation was apparently set off by racial insults -- Malacek and his sister are Korean adoptees:

Teen sues police after being left locked in van overnight

Remember that story from a couple of years back about a group of New Jersey teens who were rounded up by cops at a house party and left locked in a van outside police headquarters overnight? One the teens has a filed a lawsuit: Teen suing Fort Lee police after being left in van for 15 hours without food, water.

Adam Kim, who was 17 at the time of the incident, was detained inside a police van for nearly 15 hours without food or water after officers forgot about him and four other teenagers. The lawsuit, which names the Fort Lee Police Department, the police chief and a dozen members of the force, claims the officers who arrested Kim violated his civil rights. Not least when they called him and his friends "chinks":

UWEC Hmong students respond to racist "problems" sign

A couple of weeks ago, I shared this note that was posted in a dorm bathrooom stall by someone who obviously had some "problems" with her Hmong floor-mates at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

I recently heard from he resident assistant on the floor where the sign was posted. After waiting a month to see whether and how school officials would react, she and her peers decided to write a public statement to the university administration and the greater UWEC community.

Here's the letter: