Posted on 12/13/2004 9:11:10 AM PST by johnny7
HAYWARD - The fatal shootings of six white deer hunters after a trespassing dispute with a Hmong hunter have spawned some isolated cases of racial animosity against the region's growing Hmong community.
But people helping to resettle thousands of Hmong immigrants from a refugee camp in Thailand say last month's shootings have not caused any backlash against those efforts, which continue on schedule. Nathan Hecker, a logger and hunter in Hayward, where Chai Soua Vang faces six counts of murder in the Nov. 21 shootings, acknowledges some people in northern Wisconsin dislike Hmong immigrants. He cites the perception that Hmong hunters "tend to shoot everything that moves and take it home -- squirrels, birds, rabbits." "There can be good and bad people wherever. But some people feel that way. That's not going to help matters," he said.
Cheu Lee, 40, owner of the Hmong Times newspaper in St. Paul, home of the country's largest Hmong community and where Vang lived, knows racial prejudice exists against the Hmong, an ethnic minority who began arriving in the United States nearly 25 years ago from Southeast Asia when the Vietnam War ended. Lee said the shootings have reignited hard feelings against the Hmong, and he has received harassing phone calls from people calling the Hmong murderers. "It is like boiling water again. Hopefully, in a few years, the water will probably cool down again," Lee said. "It is always hard being a Hmong and minority. Wherever you go, not just hunting, fishing or to the store or whatever, you always hear someone calling you a name."
Among the evidence of racial tension since the shootings:
• At a community prayer service in Rice Lake, Wis., the area where all six slain hunters lived, a woman told about how a friend saw a bumper sticker that read: "Save a deer, shoot a Hmong."
• In Menomonie, Wis., police say a white man painted the word "killer" on two trailer homes and a truck owned by Hmong neighbors. Police cited him for misdemeanor property damage and set a Dec. 21 court appearance.
• Joe Bee Xiong, executive director of the Eau Claire (Wis.) Hmong Mutual Assistance Association, said his organization received an unsigned letter urging Hmong people to go back "where they belonged," apparently a reference to the Hmong homeland in Laos.
Last month's shootings came in the midst of an effort to resettle an expected 3,190 Hmong refugees in Wisconsin. The refugees are among more than 15,000 Hmong leaving Thailand for the United States. They join thousands of Hmong already in the country, including 46,000 in Wisconsin. Vang is charged with the murders of six hunters and the attempted murders of two others. The shootings erupted in Sawyer County after Vang climbed into a tree stand on private property during the second day of the deer hunting season.
Vang told investigators the other hunters called him racial slurs and one shot at him first, according to court records. Two survivors said Vang opened fire on them after he was told to leave the land.
Michael Jackson and Scott Peterson are disected nightly by FOX, C(linton)NN and PMSNBC but this guy gets almost nothing!
Guess this shows you what the MSM thinks of hunters.
Yeah, right.
Those 6 white hunters should be ashamed for killing a lone Hmong. That racism of this kind should raise it's ugly head in this day and age! It's outrageous!
< whisper > The Hmong killed the six white hunters! < /whisper >
Well, the hunters must have taunted and harrassed the Hmong hunter, else why would he kill them? It's not like he is racist, after all he's a Hmong. And they aren't racist. Only whites are racist. < /sarcasm >
Perhaps the murderer is just an evil man. End of story.
A finely aged Hmong w(h)ine is almost as good as a finely aged French w(h)ine.
Did anybody see this? Local TV news this am talked about it.
Site pulls 'Free Chai' buttons
Those skimming through the novelties hawked on a popular California-based Web site might have thought the "Free Chai Vang" buttons referred to a political prisoner.
But the name on the stark, black-and-white button belongs to the 36-year-old St. Paul man charged with the fatal shootings of six Wisconsin deer hunters last month. On Friday the Web site, CafePress.com, announced it will stop selling the buttons after the Star Tribune inquired about the item.
/snip/
In Rice Lake, shock and disbelief greeted news of the button's existence.
"I think this would upset a lot of people," said Steve Scheurer, a friend of the victims' families.
Al Laney, who set up an Internet-based memorial to the six hunters, felt similarly.
"People taking sides when they don't really know the whole story is hurtful," he said. "Everybody has their right to an opinion. ... But I'm really sad to think somebody would go and do this."
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:Maegs22_p5wJ:www.startribune.com/stories/1557/5131495.html+%22free+chai+vang%22&hl=en
It's like the extra penalties for a supposed racially motivated crime -- they apply to white men only, a minority of any sex that is a killer of white people is, by default, the "victim".
I wouldn't believe it either, except after 9/11 I saw a car in Houma, LA with "Kill or deport all ragheads" written across the back of their windshield.
Some people are brazen in their stupidity.
I wouldn't believe it either, except after 9/11 I saw a car in Houma, LA with "Kill or deport all ragheads" written across the back of their windshield.
Some people are brazen in their stupidity.
That's the cornerstone of policy around here... Did you get their FR screen name?
Here in Boise, I saw a bumper sticker that said "Save an Elk, shoot a hunter". Couldn't believe it, but I had my glasses on. I just shook my head, and refrained from showing the driver she was "number one".
**The refugees are among more than 15,000 Hmong leaving Thailand for the United States.**
I wonder how much they are going to cost the US taxpayers
Thank you, JLO!
Didn't the moderators warn you about painting FReepers with a broad brush?
It is nice to know from where the vendetta is coming.
Vendetta? I don't like to see anyone banned, and have lobbied for people who disagree with me to be re-instated. cinFLA was one of them.
You were right:
Sticker Advocated Violence Against Hmong
MANKATO, Minn. (AP) -- A store that sells bumper stickers said it would stop selling one that advocates violence against the Hmong in light of a fatal shooting in Wisconsin.
Custom Now, a store in the River Hills Mall, has been selling a bumper sticker that reads, "Save a Hunter Shoot a Mung."
Though misspelled, the slogan was seen as a reference to last month's shooting in Wisconsin. St. Paul resident Chai Soua Vang, a Hmong man, has been charged with murdering six deer hunters after a dispute over a deer stand.
Shopper Jessica Flatequal said she complained to management and was told the store sells many offensive items. "When I asked to talk to someone about it, they said it's in reference to the hunting incident," she said.
Flatequal said she was then asked to leave the store.
Some local Hmong residents said the bumper stickers disturbed them.
A store manager who declined to give his name said the word "mung" in the bumper sticker was actually an acronym for "minuscule unseen naughty gnat."
"It's not racist," he said.
Later Monday, River Hills Mall managers issued a statement saying the store would stop selling the stickers.
"We were unaware the item was being sold," the mall's general manager, Paul Wilke, said in a news release. "When it came to our attention, we asked the item be removed from the shelves out of respect for all involved."
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Since your statement gives the impression that you're eager to portray all of you fellow FReepers in such unflattering terms , perhaps you'd care to clarify your remarks.
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