User:MMetro
I am 49 years, 117 days old
Vincent Chin
[edit]Much of my Wikipedia work has gone into researching the Vincent Chin case. As a native Detroiter, I have had the opporttunity to examine one-third of the 1984 Federal court case, three civil suits, and American Citizen for Justice files which are kept at the Bentley Historical Library on the University of Michigan North Campus, not to mention countless newspaper and articles. I find many errors in articles about the case. Even Helen Zia's 2000 book fails to mention anything about the civil suit that happened after 1987. Neither does the 20 year old documentary, "Who Killed Vincent Chin".
Personally, I find it an insult reading that it was two laid-off autoworkers who committed the murder. It's unfair to nearly every other American autoworker, the ones who didn't commit violent crimes. And it's untrue. Not only was Ebens a foreman, and therefore not a member of U.A.W., but according to the Ebens v. Chrysler suit, the local was willing to strike had he not been suspended and later dismissed for the felony charge he plea bargained down to.
It was his stepson who was laid off, but that was three years before while he was also going to school. He found another job. Ebens also spent two days in jail because of the initial assault, which means that no jail time has to be carefully worded to only refer to a prison sentence for the murder. He did make some payments to the Chin estate, but his debt is much bigger than almost any of us can manage.
Currently, I need a source for the Kaufman quote: "You make the punishment fit the criminal." Many sources have quoted from it, but it seems to originate from an early ACJ press release. It does not say where and when he might have said that, but it was never in court or in legal correspondence. He may have prodded into making that statement during a heated TV interview.
So yes, there is a different story only now coming out, because the media wasn't careful about how they stated the facts back then. Maybe I can help make it more comprehensible, but I will never be able to make it less reprehensible.
Film
[edit]After MMetro (talk) 22:03, 20 November 2007 (UTC) looked at plot devices and their talk pages all day, he came to the realization that most people knew nothing about the concepts. They had no idea what a MacGuffin was, or even a cliffhanger. So go ahead, have a laugh if you check it out.
Quote
[edit]Great research on the Vincent Chin related articles! One possible resource, which I don't know if you could obtain it, would be a transcript to Bill Bond's (WXYZ t.v.) commentary "Something stinks in Wayne County," which was aired after the civil rights violation verdict. Bill Bonds was very outspoken on the Vincent Chin case. I think when Bill Bonds came out angry that it set off the outcry. I am almost positive that Bill Bonds made reference to that quote.
Robert Nitz worked at that large furniture store on Eight Mile at the time of the murder. So did Anita at the time. JButera
- Fed Court files said Michael Nitz was a delivery person for Art Van, Royal Oak location in particular. I happen to know Marla Drutz, Channel 7 general manager. I'll see if she can point me in the right direction. I'm guessing the quote came out during Bonds' interview. By the way Joe, FFrank H. Wu from Wayne State Law School has been asking how I know all this stuff. I think he might like to ask you and your friend who installed the jukebox some questions for the book that he's writing on the Chin case. MMetro (talk) 20:10, 18 March 2008 (UTC)