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The Case for Vincent Chin: A Tragedy in American Justice
This is the official position of the American Citizens for Justice issued at the period of the campaign for justice. We have tried to preserve the original text and formatting, including typos! - ed.
Facts of the Case
"IT ISN'T FAIR."
Vincent Chin
June 19, 1982
Vincent Chin was a 27 year–old Chinese American who died as a result of a senseless and brutal beating to death with a baseball bat, at the hands of Ronald Ebens and his stepson Michael Nitz.
On the night of June 19, 1982, Vincent Chin and three friends (one Chinese American and two Caucasians) went out to a bar to celebrate his upcoming wedding. While in the bar, based upon eyewitness accounts, he was confronted and verbally abused by Ebens with explicit racial slurs. In Ebens own works, "It's because of you mother F ----ers that we're out of work."
A brief altercation ensued, with everyone eventually leaving the bar. Rather than departing the area peacefully as Vincent and his friends did, Ebens and Nitz undertook a methodical, ruthless search for him.
Ebens and Nitz acted with cold calculation and stalked Vincent. A chase on foot and in an automobile spanned approximately 25 minutes and involved a 5–block area of Highland Park, Michigan. The 2 criminals went to great lengths during the hunt for Vincent, by getting a baseball bat out of their automobile and employing the help of a third individual to search for Vincent in exchange for $20 on the false pretense that Vincenthad somehow injured Nitz.
Vincent and his friend Jimmy Choi attempted to run from Ebens and Nitz and did manage to escape their pursuers momentarily. However, Ebens and Nitz ended their demented journey for locating Vincent some 5 blocks from the bar, when they drove up in their automobile to the front of a fast food restaurant where Vincent and Jimmy had sat down and waited for their friends for over 10 minutes, jumped out, and blugeoned Vincent to death. Nitz grabbed Vincent from behind, allowing Ebens to catch up and viciously strike him. According to the accounts of 2 off duty Highland Park police officers at the restaurant, at least 4 fatal blows were dealt to Chin's head. Vincent's dying words while in the arms of his friend Jimmy Choi were, "It isn't fair."
