Police Shootings Spotlight Growing Language Barriers in Suburbia

New America Media, News Analysis, Eugenia Chien, Posted: Aug 17, 2006

Editor's Note: A year after two Korean men who spoke no English were shot and killed by police during a domestic dispute in Dublin, Calif., police departments across the state are still struggling with language barriers and cultural misconceptions when enforcing the law in ethnic communities. This article is part of a project of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, New America Media, ANG Newspapers, The Korea Times and The Korea Daily which the Knight Foundation has supported with fellowships for the ethnic media. Additional reporting by Aruna Lee, Simon Read and Pueng Vongs.

DUBLIN, Calif.--One year after the Dublin police killed during a domestic dispute two Korean men who were intoxicated and spoke no English, the Korean community is still looking for answers. The Dublin tragedy and other cases show that police departments across the nation are still struggling with language barriers, cultural misconception and communication with ethnic communities.

On the evening of Aug. 11, 2005, two police officers responded to a domestic disturbance at the Dublin home of Richard Kim. Kim's brother-in-law, Kwang Tae Lee, and his wife had been visiting Kim from Korea. Police found Lee holding a knife and threatening to get into the bedroom where Kim had been hiding. When Lee did not comply with police officers' demands to drop the knife, the officers shot Lee five times, killing him. A bullet that pierced through the bedroom door wounded Kim, who died three days later.

In the months after the Dublin shooting, community organizations and the media have rallied for an investigation of police protocol and training. They also criticized the Alameda Sheriff's Department for dragging its feet, when they released the District Attorney's report nine months after the shooting. The report found that the officers shot "in defense of others and in self-defense."

"Since the evidence is insufficient to prove criminal liability," the report said, "no charges will be filed."

"The Korean community will continue to fight back until they get a fair judgment, and raise their voices for more investigations until justice is done," Hong Ik Kim, president of the Korean Community Center in Bay Area, told the Korea Times and Korea Daily.

"This is a case about human rights," said Reverend Incheol Kim (who is not related to Richard Kim) at the Holy Blessing Evangelical Church in Walnut Creek, about 18 miles from Dublin. Kim has written a petition for compensation for the victims' families and stronger legislation to prevent reckless use of firearms. He is circulating the petition among churches in the Korean Church Association of Contra Costa County.

The case has moved the typically low-key Korean American community into action.

"This incident sparked the first time ever for Korean Americans here to come together to demonstrate and to advocate for justice," said Sam Shin of the Bay Area Korean American Justice Coalition, which was formed after the Dublin shooting. The organization has talked with the Dublin Police Department and the Alameda Sheriff's Department in town hall meetings about improving training and policy.

Nationally, suburbs like Dublin have seen their ethnic populations grow in the last decade. A study by the University of Michigan Population Studies center in 2001 showed that racial and ethnic minorities make up 27 percent of suburban populations, up from 19 percent in 1990. In a city of nearly 30,000 people, Dublin's population is 62 percent white, 10 percent Asian, 13 percent Latino, and 10 percent Black. In 1990, Asians made up only 6 percent of Dublin's population.

According to the Dublin Police Department, the deaths of Kim and Lee were the first individuals shot and killed by the police in the history of the department.

Police officers at the Dublin Police Department are contracted from the Alameda County Sheriff's Department and go through training approved by the California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST).

"The shooting didn't change the POST standards," said Lt. Glenn Moon at the Dublin Police Department. Though the department has Latino and Indian officers, it needs Chinese and Korean speakers, he said.

"It's nice to have officers matching the diversity of your demographic, but even if you do have bilingual officers, they may not be there for the specific situation."

Community activists cite other cases where they say linguistic, racial and cultural barriers between officers and ethnic individuals caused unjustified shootings. In 2003, police officers in San Jose, Calif., killed Cau Bich Tran, a Vietnamese woman with a history of mental illness. Tran was waving a vegetable peeler when police entered her home. In 1997, police officers in Rohnert Park, Calif., killed Kuan-Chung Kao because they thought Kao, who was Chinese, was waving a stick in a "martial arts" manner. Police officers shot Kao, who was also intoxicated at the time, within seconds of arriving at his house. Police departments in these cases did not admit wrongdoing.

"This is an emerging issue given the demographic shift of America today that we need officers who are fluent in languages in addition to English," said Merrick Bobb, director of Police Assessment Resource Center in Los Angeles. "Larger police departments may be dealing with these issues, but in smaller departments, it is unclear what is being done."

After the Kao shooting, the Rohnert Park police department adapted less lethal weapons like bean bag guns and added training focusing on how to deal with the emotionally disturbed.

In San Jose, the police department had a crisis intervention team whose officers are trained to deescalate tense situations. Officer Greg Sancier, who has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, teaches the course.

"We teach officers how to diffuse the situation by talking to the person, slowing down the pace they respond, and employing less lethal techniques," Sancier said. The course also includes a panel discussion with family members of the mentally ill and site visits to hospital facilities that treat people who are mentally ill.

There is no state mandate to teach police officers how to deal with situations that involve language barriers, according to Bob Stresak, senior law enforcement consultant for the California Peace Officer Standard and Training in Sacramento, which manages courses taught to California's police officers. While a police officer's basic courses now offer training in scenarios that involve people under the influence of drugs or alcohol or people who are mentally ill, it is up to the police chief or sheriff to decide whether the department will offer language courses.

"The language issue is percolating across police departments," Stresak said. "It is an ongoing topic."

Larger police departments are making changes to reflect their community, according to Hwang of Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach. He is in talks with San Francisco police chief Heather Fong to prioritize training bilingual officers in dealing with mentally ill and impaired people.

"Officers assume that if someone is not obeying their orders, he must be blowing them off," said Barbara Attard of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement. "If there is a language barrier, the police officers may not be aware of it, especially not in a rapidly progressing situation," she said.

"When the police are in a violent situation, it is highly emotional. Departments need to focus on how to deal with these issues better."

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