Vincent Chin murder 35 years later: History repeating itself?

Niraj Warikoo | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Vincent Chin's murder 35 years later: Is history repeating itself? Thirty-five years ago, Vincent Chin, of Asian descent, was murdered by white men in a hate crime in 1982 in Highland Park, MI. The case still resonates in Michigan, where there has been a spike in reported hate crimes.

Thirty-five years ago this week, Gary Koivu visited a Detroit hospital to see his friend Vincent Chin, his head swathed in bandages after being slugged in Highland Park by a man with a baseball bat.

"It was very upsetting," recalled Koivu, 61, of Harrison Township, who was 26 at the time of the incident. "I had been friends with him for 20 years. Iasked the nurse, How is he doing? What are his chances? She said, he has no chance, she said his brain was dead."

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A couple of days later, Chin died, 35 years ago Thursday.

The tragic death — and subsequent lenient punishment (probation and a $3,000 fine) — outraged Asian Americans in Detroit. They organized, forming new coalitions and the civil rights group American Citizens for Justice, sparking an Asian-American civil rights movement that continues today. On Saturday, a forum will be held at a Chinese-American center in Madison Heights to remember Vincent Chin with a documentary screening, panel discussion with Koivu and the director of Michigan's Civil Rights Dept. and a visit to Chin's grave site in Detroit. Of Chinese descent, Chin