Murder of Vincent Chin, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetMurder of Vincent Chin
murdered in 1982 in Detroit, USA
Date of Birth: 18-May-1955
Place of Birth: Guangdong, China
Date of Death: 23-Jun-1982
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Taurus 
About Murder of Vincent Chin
- Vincent Jen Chin (May 18, 1955 – June 23, 1982) was a Chinese-American draftsman who was beaten to death by two white men, Chrysler plant supervisor Ronald Ebens and his stepson, laid-off autoworker Michael Nitz. Ebens and Nitz assailed Chin following a brawl that took place at a bar in Highland Park, Michigan, where Chin had been celebrating his bachelor party with friends in advance of his upcoming wedding.
- They apparently assumed Chin was of Japanese descent, and are alleged to have used racial slurs as they attacked him.
- Ebens and Nitz blamed him for the success of Japan's auto industry, despite the fact that Chin was of Chinese descent. At the time, Metro Detroit was a powder keg of racial animosity toward Asian-Americans, specifically as the penetration of Japanese automotive imports in the U.S.
- domestic market hastened the decline of Detroit’s Big Three.
- Resentful workers laid the blame for recent layoffs on Japanese competition. Chin was taken Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, where a nurse told his childhood friend that "he has no chance" and that "his brain was dead." He died of his injuries four days later.Ebens and Nitz were charged with second-degree murder, but bargained the charges down to manslaughter and pleaded guilty in 1983.
- They were ordered to pay $3,000 and serve three years' probation, with no jail time.
- While Ebens and Nitz never denied the brawl, they claimed the fight was not racially motivated and said they did not use racial epithets.The lenient sentence led to a vocal outcry from Asian-Americans.
- The president of the Detroit Chinese Welfare Council said it amounted to a "$3,000 license to kill" Chinese Americans.
- As a result, the case has been viewed as a critical turning point for Asian-American civil rights engagement and a rallying cry for stronger federal hate crime legislation.
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