Statement and Response to Mr. Hutchens’ Sentencing

今天Multnomah County检察官办公室的一个新闻稿惊动了本地媒体，到了傍晚已经出现在全国各大媒体上了，相信后续影响还会持续发酵。 因为这次判决的内容不同寻常，被告为自己犯下的种族暴力付出代价之外，还被要求与我们社区开展一系列对话座谈，通过学习亚裔文化和历史，了解社区亚裔和社区，反省自己给受害人，社区乃至社会造成的伤害。 希望通过这个被称为Restorative Justice的过程，在返回社区之际，被告能够成为对社区有用的人。

现在County司法系统上下对这次经历表现出了浓厚的兴趣，主流媒体记者也主动要求参加座谈，跟踪全过程。在全国都在被种族暴力激增困扰，而司法又显得无所作为的情况下，大家似乎从中感觉到了什么，也许这个很有新意的做法能够为现在的社会找到一条出路？ 如果真如此，那其应用甚至有可能超出缓解反亚裔的情绪。

这次社区成员积极参与案件审理为这个方案的形成奠定了基础，我们将继续依赖社区的集体智慧把这件事情做成做好。 有兴趣参加讨论的群友，欢迎加入《PDX 法律信息互助群》。

DA Office Press Release

OCC Statement on Mr. Hutchens’ Sentencing

As Portland and America suffer from elevated rates of racial prejudice, it is of the utmost importance to call out, address, and mitigate the hate crimes which have directly harmed our communities. Cases involving anti-Asian hate crimes such as Mr. Hutchens’s act of criminality reflect growing trends of racial biases plaguing America since its inception, with this recent wave of anti-Asian sentiment simply manifesting age-old biases in contemporary discourse. The city of Portland prides itself as a haven of inclusivity and diversity, so to see anti-Asian sentiment adulterate its social landscape is a threat to not only the Asian community but the identity of the city itself. By holding the defendant accountable for his reprehensible actions, the DA office is taking a righteous step to address anti-Asian injustice. Racially motivated violence will not be tolerated at any time, but education through accountability is one of the first steps we, as a city, can take towards addressing these injustices.

The following response is prepared for media inquiries.

We could not appreciate more Multnomah County DA Office for sending out such thoughtful message to the community.

As a response to the press release, we want to express the following, that we are not fearful of confrontation with any type of violence or hatred toward Asian Americans but at the same time, it is not our intention to let individual persons shoulder the consequences of social injustice which has deeper roots in our society.

The determination and the wisdom of Mr. BJ Park and all the staff in his office came out such an innovative way to handle the crimes involved with racial hatred. The resolution in this case has an important implication as we move forward with the fight against the hatred toward Asian Americans and any ethnic group in our community.

For the details of restorative justice, we will work with the Department of Community Justice. I believe pretty soon, once the probation officer is assigned, we will work together to set up something like an evening of dialogue between the Asian-American community and defendant. Let’s sit down and talk about his act and its implication to the victim and to the community. Inevitably we will talk about the history and culture of Asian Americans. With the dialogues, we hope the ignorance will be replaced by the knowledge of diversity and inclusion, the hatred will be replaced with love and respect that we are all the members of one big community. At the end, we certainly hope Mr. Hutchens returns back to the community as a community advocate. We will be with him along the way.

At last, we said in our statement, racially motivated violence will not be tolerated at any time, but education through accountability is one of the first steps we, as a community, can take towards addressing these injustices.

Thank you for reaching out to us. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.