You are currently browsing all entries tagged with 'murder'

R.I.P. Bobby Khamvongsa

  • May 23, 2012 12:02 am

Last night, all over my Facebook, I started hearing about the murder of Bobby Khamvongsa, a 27-year-old Asian man who was stabbed to death on the streets of West Hollywood last weekend. It turned out that Bobby and I had 14 mutual friends on Facebook and he had moved to Los Angeles from Hawaii to pursue a career in make-up. As I was going through the blogs, I saw that LA Weekly wrote that “the victim was dressed in women’s clothes.” The reporting was certainly titillating. The immediate question came into my mind was—had he been gay bashed?

I was surprised that the most popular Asian American blogs have not picked up on this story considering some would report on the most random Asian American drowning in the ocean. Perhaps they didn’t know how to deal with an Asian American man who died in drag. I do feel there’s homophobia in the Asian American community which isn’t quite sure how to or doesn’t want to deal with sexuality within their own community while desperately trying to uphold being “normal” in America.

The story got even more intriguing as the murder suspect, Richard Herrera, 29, went to the same high school, Kaimuki High in Hawaii, as Bobby. It was reported that the police believed that Bobby was involved in a dispute with Richard, but their relationship was still left for our speculation.  Read more...

Why You Shouldn’t Build a Tree House for Your Kid that Faces my Bedroom Window

  • September 13, 2011 7:52 pm

So I woke up the other morning to another glorious Southern California day, bounced over to my window and pulled open the shades to let the sunshine in just like I imagine Julie Andrews must do every morning to see…wait, that wasn’t there the last time I looked. It was a tree house. Towering over my neighbor’s backyard fence. My neighbor must have built it for his son, Joey (name changed to protect the soon-to-be-corrupted innocent). I had a clear, unobstructed view of this new creation from my bedroom window. What that also meant was whoever was up in that tree house would have a clear, unobstructed view right into my bedroom. 

Or to put it in more practical terms—little innocent Joey was about to get an education in things that a young child shouldn’t see. Hell, he was about to get an education in shit that a grown adult shouldn’t see. Yup, my neighbor’s 7-year-old kid was in for an…interesting viewing experience.

I’m not even talking about all the freaky sex stuff the boy’s going to witness—I mean come on, that’s a given. I can already guarantee you that after what I have scheduled for this upcoming weekend, he’s going to learn about every single thing that can happen between a man, a woman, a stick of butter, a can of police mace and a dwarf wearing a R2-D2 costume with a flip cam. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  Read more...

Vincent Chin: When Worlds Collide

  • June 19, 2011 7:38 pm

CURTIS

Curtis Chin is a Motown-born, New York-bred, Los Angeles-based writer, producer and community activist. He’s proud to have co-founded the Asian American Writers Workshop and Asian Pacific Americans for Progress and for writing and producing the documentary looking back at the June 19, 1982 murder of Vincent Chin, Vincent Who? He’s less proud of having started the Young Republicans Club in high school. He’s currently working on a new website with a former ABC and HBO exec, widelantern.com, and developing a teen comedy with director Quentin Lee and producer Chris Lee. For the months of June and July, Vincent Who? will be available on-line for free by visiting the official website, Vincentwhomovie.com.

Vincent Chin

Childhood memories can be extremely selective. Why do we remember certain faces, places and sounds while forgetting others? And how do we organize these memories into convenient boxes that help us define who we are and how we perceive ourselves?

As an Asian American growing up in Detroit in the 70′s and 80′s, my life seemed to exist in two worlds, each with their own set of memories: school and work.

In school, where the majority of people were either black or white, my strongest memories are of being pulled out of class and being put in a remedial English class, even though my family spoke English at home and we had been in this country for several generations. At the same time, I was being placed in the advanced math classes even though I sucked at math. I sometimes think I became a writer as a big FU to these teachers.  Read more...

Sympathy for Ms. Bin Laden

  • May 18, 2011 12:01 am

(WARNING: This post contains graphic images)

Every now and then, I would visit my French Canadian friend in Santa Monica. He’s an older gentleman, a retired journalist. We are both Canadian immigrants, which is a fact and not oxymoron as you might think. And we are both from Montreal. We would take these long walks in Santa Monica, the epitome of bourgeois Los Angeles, and talk about the world. He’s like a wise uncle to me. I enjoy spending time with him because he reminds me that there’s a whole world out there other than L.A.

“What do you think about killing Bin Laden?” I asked as we were strolling along the ocean.

“What do you think?”

“I feel like they went in and did the job effectively. I don’t feel like celebrating his death is right.”

“I’m not so happy about it,” he said, brushing back his peppered hair in the wind.

“I guess I wonder why they didn’t capture him if he had been unarmed.”

“Had they even thought of negotiating? We never even bothered negotiating with the Taliban. We just went in and invaded Afghanistan. We could have negotiated with the Taliban to turn Bin Laden over. Was that even a thought?”  Read more...

Real Life X-File or the Story of the Suicidal Swedish Twins

  • December 23, 2010 1:55 am

First off, I have to say that this story is real. Ripped from the British headlines. Caught on tape by BBC cameramen. It is truly one of the most bizarre stories reported by mainstream media.

In the summer of 2008, twin sisters from Sweden are wandering along a major freeway, the M6, in the Midlands area of Great Britain. Both run into oncoming traffic, and one of them is hit but miraculously is not injured. Coincidentally, a BBC cameraman is accompanying two traffic cops in a squad car, taping them for a BBC reality show called Motorway Cops. They are on the scene, and well, I think this BBC news report will pretty much explain it all… http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1797829/ Ursula Erikkson, the twin in the green sweater who was hit by an 18-wheeler, with a multiple compound fractures below the waist, is awake and alert, and is literally crawling, trying to break away from the police. Sabina, the one in red, who was charged with assault, hit TWICE by cars, seems uninjured and it took 6 grown men to restrain her.  Read more...

RUSH HOUR Gone Tragic: Porn’s “Jackie Chan” Murdered By Porn’s “Chris Tucker”

  • June 3, 2010 7:24 pm

Herbert Wong aka Tom Dong

In a still-developing story that’s as bizarre as it is tragic, struggling adult film actor Stephen Clancy Hill (aka Steven Driver) allegedly utilized a prop Samurai sword and promptly went on a berserk tirade at the Van Nuys, CA offices of porn video distributors Ultima DVD, where he also apparently lived. Hill attacked a co-worker, and two others who came to the victim’s aid, badly injuring two and killing the third, identified as Herbert Hin Wong of Van Nuys Canoga Park.  Wong who, like Hill, was also an adult performer (stage name “Tom Dong”), was set upon by Hill after he and another co-worker heard screams and came to the rescue. He was pronounced dead from multiple stab wounds after being rushed to Northridge Hospital Medical Center.  Read more...