A Santa Clara County grand jury last Thursday declined to indict any of the police officers who were involved in the shooting death of a mentally ill Vietnamese man, reports the San Jose Mercury News here.
Daniel Pham, 27, was fatally shot by police last May. He had attacked his brother with a knife, and the family had called 9-1-1.
When police arrived at the scene, they claimed they didn’t know Pham was a mental patient. The family, however, insisted that they were screaming and yelling, in English, to the police, that Pham was mentally ill. Police shot and killed Pham.
Two weeks ago, several community groups in San Jose, Viet and non-Viet, protested the shooting and presented a petition with a thousand signatures calling for the D.A. to open grand jury proceedings. (In the picture are Daniel Pham’s mother, his older brother, and the brother’s ex-girlfriend.)
The D.A. Dolores Carr, however, had left the building by the time the group got there. She had earlier said that she has a long-standing belief that grand jury investigations into police shootings should not be open to the public. This is a reversal from her predecessor’s policy, who opened the grand jury proceedings into shooting of Bich Cau Thi Pham, who was killed by San Jose police for holding a vegetable peeler smaller than a regular steak knife.
With the proceedings closed, the grand jury promptly rendered its decision not to prosecute any police.
Which raised even more questions. As anyone remotely connected to law enforcement knows, grand jury proceedings are the D.A. office’s one-man show, and the grand jury almost always does whatever the D.A. wants.
The Assistant D.A. in charge of the case, Dave Tomkins, told the Mercury News, “The grand jury heard all the evidence in the case and they declined to criminally indict. That says it all.” By “that says it all,” Tomkins may have meant whatever – but to everyone else, that does say it all: That the D.A.’s office was slanting the evidence toward no indictment.
Richard Konda, the executive director of the Asian Law Alliance, noted that Pham’s father, an eyewitness to the shooting who may have told the grand jury what the family said to the police, was not asked to testify.
“What kinds of facts did they look at?” Konda said. “It’s a secret process, and that leaves so many questions unanswered.”
Now, even if the father had testified and all the evidence had been presented, the grand jury might still have come to the same conclusion. After all, a mentally unstable man with a knife is just as much of a threat as, or even more of a threat than, a sane man.
But at least we know the process was not skewed, and we can be assured the D.A.’s office is not helping the San Jose police run a Wild West show in the middle of Silicon Valley.
The D.A.’s office’s goal for statistical records is to prosecute cases with clear evidence to achieve a high conviction rate. No D.A.’s office wants to prosecute a case which will more likely result in a dismissal, an acquittal, or a hung jury.
Let’s look at this situation from a personal perspective…if the brother is mentally insane, then why call outside intervention? If so, then be prepared for the worst case scenario.
The family called because they felt endangered, so they looked to an outside source to control the situation. Why would an outsider take personal risk that the family members are unwilling to take?
So, the officers did what they did for everyone’s safety. The moral of the lesson is try to handle family matters yourself because an outside party’s involvement may be worse than your expectation.
However, family members expected a different outcome with police intervention, like a subdued brother….. without police using deadly force.
If you guys don’t want to help your fellow Viet, that is OK but please do not rub salt into their wound…… If this happens to the Black or Hispanic community, those cops would be put on trial…..người trẻ Vietnam bây giờ chỉ lo kiếm tiền …..gặp Mỹ thì khúm na khúm núm …. gặp đồng hương thì chê lên chê xuống ….. I have to write this in Vietnamese so other races don’t understand!!!! It’s sad…. very sad for the community!!!!!!!!
GOSSIPSAIGON :
You are just a pathetic communist, suffering from post psychotic disorder from inferior complex. “Vietnamese youth bowing to other races” is what you say !
It is sad to see you communist here.
There is no Viet killing trend to support community watch. This instance is interpreted through the judgement of the officers – in this instance, possibly bad.
Does it warrant community concern? No. The family can always hire their own lawyers and pursue the matter themselves.
That is correct. You guys treat your own people like shit but you kowtow to your My~ master…and I am talking about those so called ‘highly educated Viet’. Even the Viet thug treats his fellow Viet better than you guys. It happens everyday at workplaces,daily life, and even on this blog…..
I feel for the family with loved one who is killed by the police. But it is not necessary the case for everyone jump on the racist band wagon.
I totally agree with Mr. hot-air that calling for a patriotic love among viet ethnic group to defy a ‘non existence white Caucasian ruling class’ is a old sentiment left over from the French colonial time.
The Vietcong has used this sentiment to got support from the Viet Nam population and successfully luring million young men to the battle front and to their deaths in the war against the American troops.
Mr. Gossipsaigon has used the phrase:’…người trẻ Vietnam bây giờ chỉ lo kiếm tiền …..gặp Mỹ thì khúm na khúm núm …. gặp đồng hương thì chê lên chê xuống ….’ , translated by ‘hot air’: “Vietnamese youth bowing to other races (Americans) ” is a hollow bravado, it does sound like an old Vietcong propaganda. It makes me shudder.
@ Gossip Saigon;
Are you starting a LA RAZA group in the viet community here?
You sound like them.
Per San Jose Mercury News, “When Pham refused and charged at the officers with the knife, they shot and killed him, prosecutors say. The officers first tried to use a Taser to subdue Pham, police previously reported…” A reasonable juror who believes this is a correct fact will not indict (for starting the prosecution) or convict (when case is tried by the jury) the officers.
If the community involved heavily in the beginning, the FBI would have opened a civil right investigation as they had done with the black and latino community. President Obama purposely involved into the case which the black professor was arrested by police a few months ago. His involvement was a calculated move which brought the issue to the national level.. I am sure that would deter some rouge cops out there….
By the way your fellow Viet do not want you to give them preferential treatment just because they are Viet…we beg you to treat us the same way that you treat other races…….
a big kudo to Richard Konda, the executive director of Asian Law Alliance, for speaking out for the victim family…I am sure you are not Viet……
It is easy to defend a completely innocent victim, but in this instance, this insane person could have turned violent on a neighbor after this incidence had he not been killed. A reader can be generous behind the keyboard until he/she has to live with that mentally unstable individual as a neighbor, then the topic becomes a safety concern…
The main function of a DA’s office is to prosecute. They will be eager to prosecute any criminal case with good evidence to convince a jury to convict the suspect. They will never prosecute any case if they are certain that the jury will not convict the suspect. Race is not an issue for the DA, but the likeliness of conviction is.
Assuming the news account reports, “When Richardson (or Ortega, or Polinsky, or Ivanov, etc.,) refused and charged at the officers with the knife, they shot and killed him, prosecutors say. The officers first tried to use a Taser to subdue Richardson (or Ortega, or Polinsky, or Ivanov, etc.,), police previously reported…” and a prosecutor is certain that a reasonable juror who believes this is a correct fact will not convict the officers, the prosecutor will not attempt to prosecute the case despite all pressures from the victim’s family and support groups.
And a big kudo to you, too, Mr. gossipsaigon for speaking out. Big kudo to all protesters, too.
Making noise does not necessarily mean making sense in this case where the odd is so large against the cause. It may give the viet community a reverse and negative affect in the outcome.
Here is my take:
Killing an innocent woman with a peeler: Bad judgement.
Killing and insane man with a knife: Good judgement.
What happened to the check and balance process? How do you know if the D.A did not collude with the cops and swept everything under the rug?? If we don’t make any noises, the next victim could be any of you or your loved ones.
If anyone know how to get the FED to review the D.A’s decision, please advise the victim family.
It is time for the so called “highly educated Viet youth” to step out of the box and protect the interest of the community….
@ Gossipsaigon;
I thought the check and balance was already in place. No?
It’s too bad the no indictment outcome did not come out the way the viet protesters want it. I doubt that the FED review can make the hate crime become real since there was nothing there to start with.
A Grand Jury is part of the system of checks and balances. Jurors typically are drawn from the pool of all citizens. The following website provides helpful information about functions of the Grand Jury in Santa Clara County.
http://www.sccsuperiorcourt.org/jury/GJ.html#info
“The Civil Grand Jury is an investigatory body created for the protection of society and the enforcement of the law…”
“The Grand Jury may examine all aspects of county and city government and special districts to ensure that the best interests of Santa Clara county citizens are being served…”
“The Grand Jury holds hearings to determine whether evidence presented by the district attorney is of sufficient nature to warrant persons having to stand trial in court…”
Thinking of influencing a Grand Jury’s decision is just delusional.
One thing about the intellectual group (of any races) that they make rational judgement and therefore less of an emotional judgement. Kudo for them.
Any politician want to jump in at this time surely has his and her investment in for future votes.
How stupid are you Bolsavik, to phrase the headline: “… Kill Viet”?
Did those cops seek out and kill Vietnamese only?
Or were they responding to a 911 call, and killed a resident as a result?
Are you promoting racial hatred?
Because of your stupid wording, hence the innuendo, only then can retards like gossipsaigon can jump on the bandwagon and cry “Cop Killed Viet”.
The police officers might have killed an innocent metally ill resident, OK.
But only stupid people would lable them killing Viet, and try to prosecute them for that crime.
If you guys are so proud of our Viet Heritage, so anti-American, have no regards for the justice system here (laws, logics and common sense)… then why don’t you guys go somewhere else to form your own eutopia, or better yet, go back to Vietnam with our people, and seek better justice there.
Shut the f… up, retards!
This subject matter is situated deep into a gray zone.
Only hope that nothing less than a clear justice was served here…if not, family has our support in revealing the truth.
I would do anything I could to help the family to get the justice they deserve, or be compensated for their loss (as in any accident).
I would do the same to help the officers of the law to fight off the jerks that hide behind the race card to try to make some blood money, or to gain power (in their wicked mind) playing the race card in this tragedy.
Yes I agree with you. Some Viet belong to the intellectual group made rational judgement to cheat insurance companies and got arrested. It hurt to see these young people went to jail….
Whether we want to admit it or not, the matter of “race” is always going to affect how the police handle the situation. Here’s a perfect example of it and this story was in the news not long ago: an off duty cop call in to the station to get some back up for a break in into his car which was park on the street somewhere. When the other police got to the scene, they saw a black man holding a gun who was running after a white male. They shot the black man and it turned out that the black man was the off duty cop and the white man was the robber. The matter is stil being investigate. S
The cops will always think twice before they pull a trigger on a “white” man. period.
Study their Black & White long history of co-existence before associating us Viet into the equation.
Forget about the history and just face the reality. Just ask any nail salon’s owner about how the cops handle the situation regarding a white customer walk out the salon without paying versus with a non-white customer.
A few years the Garden Grove PD instituted a policy which they would stop and question any Viet kids who dress like gang attired and it turned out most of the kids they questioned were good kids. The community made some noises, and the ACLU involved. Now that policy has been abolished. If the community did not make noises, one of those kids could be your son, daughter, nieces, and nephews…..
Racism is always a concern in multi cultural society. More interaction and education may help ease most types of racial ignorance.
When facing a mentally-ill man charging forward with a knife, and taser was already used without effect, any police officer, be it a White, Black, Viet, Hispanic, Chinese, etc., would be more likely to shoot that man.
wow…how did we go from an insane person in San Jose to all these general references? can we not deal in specifics first and see if there is a trend. if there is one, then address that issue then. no point in discussing hypothetical situations because those are far and few in between, right?
Ringo, you are right. We need to only deal with the facts coupled with some degree of motivation on all parties involved in this incident.
Like I said, a TRAGEDY, where an innocent metally-ill person WHO HAPPENs TO BE VIET was killed (justifiably) by cops.
SYSTEMATICALLY is the key in RACISM.
Do the policemen in question always/often/frequently shoot/kill mentally-ill Viet? Please list the victims.
Most of us who have read this post understood that this is a tragedy, a mentally-ill person who happens to be Viet was killed by the cops. Racism does happen everyday in our lives, not neccessary in this story but it does happen. And most us who had experience dealing with the justice system will know that justice was not always served and the cops are not always good.
This is a greater tragedy because live was lost in front of his own family members. Family members have right to protest regardless of police being “just” in the eyes of law. It’s a complex and emotional issue.
I do not want to generalize anything and everything happens in the everyday life interaction between police and viet group as an example for a viet being treated badly because he/ she is a viet.
As long as you come to the conclusion that as long as you are non-white you will forever being treated unfairly, it will happen that way. You will be what you think you are, most of the time.
Just come out of your viet self and declare you are an law abiding US citizen, I bet your world will be much nice to live in.
A law abiding citizen, mind you!
A police officer resorting to a deadly force was often questioned/criticized without building a concrete permanent solutions….. due to the dynamics of fluid daily situations cops must face every time when they are responding to a service call.
@vietnamese:
What happens if the cop is a Vietnamese-American?
And the person who walked out of the nail saloon is a non-Caucasian, non-Viet customer?
Would there be any accusation of preferential treatment? Regardless of the real story behind this walk out activity?, i.e.: the shop was not clean, the nail technician did not speak English well, the nail technician beat up another nail worker over the dirty cup, etc…
The race line is getting a little gray here.
Seen the movie ‘Crash’ anyone?
The real problem here is the convenience of just picking up the fon and dial a quick 911 number for help…..It is a good thing we the people here in the land of Uncle Sam can get help just by barely lifting your fingers and dial-a -cop, but guess what?…Everything have its price. Let s just use this case here as an example.
If this would have happened in Vietnam, or Mexico, or Cambodia or any third world country where they do not have the luxury of this 911 help call?…The most this retard fool, charging at other people with a knife, would get…. is a baseball bat quack to his head knocking his dumbass down….but he will lives?.See?..And the cop here have every right to shoot him if tazer didn t have no effect, but if they are man enough?….Why not do a man to man cowboy style left hook and drop him with a punch instead of relying on that mean Smith and Wesson?.. Again, cops are pussies here, after all that training and you mofos can t even subdue a retard with a knife?.. What a waste of tax dollar to hire some young musleheads knowing nothing better than just trigger happy when the pressure comes.
How many of you here can find records or cases where the outcomes would have been less violent if the parties involved didn t rely too much on that 911 number?..
Do you women really think that piece of paper call restraining order will stop a mad ex-husband charging at you with a knife?..The cops will be there to do the autopsy report on your dead body, you know that right?.
And just to clear any negative comments about why i m so against law enforcement, i m gonna let you guys know a true story about 10 years ago. Happened in Riverside Superior Court, the lady in front of us bragged about how she screwed up her ex-husband dragging him back to California from Colorado for some b.s. stuffs..how his life will be miserable since her new boy friend is a lawyer…blah blah blah….And it happened so fast, a man came flying through the metal detector gate with a pistol, bullets flying everywhere from his gun and the police…everybody including me hiding and praying for our lives……..Final result?…That bitch is dead, the man is dead…A few bystanders wounded…..But the news and everyones make it sounds like a madman stormed through the courtroom randomly?…Where were those cops?..What happened to the fast reliable 911 respond?..
But the common things between any goverments, Communist or not, for as long as its citizens have the fear or the need for that goverment, that s what their ultimate goal is. IMHO.
So folks, think twice be4 dial 911.
Sonny boy;
I like what you said, taking the argument to the next level, sarcastically funny. LOL
@Bo May, I have seen the movie. You’d be surprised at what happens if the cop is a Vietnamese-American. Some of them was treating the non-white customer worse than the white cop and any other than white will usually got more questioning. And when I said walk out without paying, it means that the customer had all the work done with no problem what so ever but didn’t want to pay. The reason given was :” oh, I don’t have any money”, ” I didn’t like the work” ( but I refuse to have them taking off), or no reason was given at all.
Then I will beat the costumer up myself without calling the cop.
This mother fucker probably thinks he/ she can do it because the hapless nail shop worker, owner will not do anything to stop them.
A black female costumer has done so in one of my friend restaurant because this bitch had no money and think she could get away with it,
SOME of the viet restaurants take money without reporting to the IRS. So, it is a 50-50 chance, most viet business would let it go without calling to the cop.
My friend took the hard stand, because she is a female owner and easier for her to take this black bitch down than say, a male. For the long-short of the story, she never get the meal money paid, the bitch got to spend a day in the slammer. What else can you do? Sue the city? Sue the cop, sue Jessie Jackson?
Haaaaa, that’s funny Bo May. Sometimes, we do wish that we could take the law in our own hands but everything in life have consequences. Whether we want to take that chance or not it’s all up to us.
Here is my take:
Killing an innocent woman with a peeler: Bad judgement.
Killing and insane man with a knife: Good judgement.
While I agree that Viet community should look after its own with clarity and rationality, I highly recommend that we take an even higher road – using our cause to champion the disenfranchised of all groups.
Why is this important? Because we would lose in the long run for being parochial and clannish. The US system may not be perfect but it has allowed us to prosper and make something of ourselves. Therefore, we should observe whatever trends of wrongdoing in our community and support others with similar plight.
Sonny Tran’s example of the Texas DA refusing to prosecute his friend is what I call silent agreement – it don’t take an “aye” to support a cause, only abstinance from just action will do the same and have the same effect.
The last thing that we Viets should allow is disenfranchisement in any form. At the end of the road, we are all connected communally, and another’s suffering affects us too, individually and collectively.
While violence is not the solution to most problems, there are those who only operate in that mode. Take that bitch that was blown away by her husband. Should we cry for Argentina?
My answer is hell f-ing no because you played the game and paid with your m-f-ing life, so ha ha ha.
Be clear when you take on action against other group.
Is it justified?
Is it a “communal issue” or a private/personal matter (accident)?
Can I ask you for help if a vehicle owned by a White/Black/Latino guy/gal ran into my car?
Suppose there is a trend of cops killing insane viets, and a nearby neighborhood is experiencing the same. It is encouraging to see the viet community joining the other to address this trend…
If the community doesn’t make any noises now, what would happen down the road is that some of the cops would think that the Viet community is very passive so they have a license to shoot……….
‘And in the end, the love you get is equal to the love you give,’ …
GOOD NITE N’ GOOD LUCK.