04.12.07
No word from the MTA about the case of Marie Stefanie Martinez.. BUT..
I was able to get in touch with one of the representatives. Her name is Ms. Richardson and it seems that her department didn’t hear about this case. But I’m sure they did after getting in touch with them. She told me in order to find out who the bus driver is, we need to know the ID number of that bus. This is the number she gave me in order for complaints to be filed: 1-888-692-8687 And here is what I can think of:
- According to the New York Post, the incident happened on March 16, 2007 around 3:30PM as the bus left the stop on Ocean Avenue and Kings Highway.
- Here is the schedule for the B82 and the map. You will need a PDF reader.
- Contact whoever you can from the MTA and find out which bus ran on that line on that day during that time.
- Call that number above and bring this incident to their attention.
- I’d say flood their phonelines, e-mails, and mailboxes.
Remember folks, this kind of thing can happen to us regardless of our ethnicities. God forbid, it can even happen when I walk out of my house to take the bus to work.
Jun Zuniga said,
April 12, 2007 at 8:19 pm
I’ve sent a letter and MTA confirmed they received it, I’ll update when I hear more. Here’s a copy of the letter, feel free to edit it and send to MTA. I sent copies to the following folks:
Commanding Officer – 63rd Precinct NYPD Captain Frank V. Cangiarella
HATE CRIMES TASK FORCE NYPD Commanding Officer Inspector Michael J. Osgood
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
MTA Bus President Tom Savage
Rosemarie Arnold, Esq. - Counsel for Marie Stefanie Martinez
Organization of Chinese Americans
Japanese American Citizens League
National Federation of Filipino American Associations
Asian American Justice Center
Asian Law Caucus
Councilman John Liu
“I am corresponding with you in regards to my grave concerns with a reported anti-Asian hate crime that occurred to an Asian American student in New York. On March 18, 2007 the New York Post reported that on March 16, 2007 Asian American Catholic school student, Marie Stefanie Martinez was attacked by a group of 10 teenagers on a MTA B82 bus, reportedly because Ms. Martinez, “looked Chinese”, even though she is Filipina. Furthermore, the Post noted that when Ms. Martinez, still wearing her Catholic school uniform, reported the assault to the MTA bus driver, the driver informed her she should “go talk to a priest”. I would like this opportunity to urge you to take a strong public stand moving for the vigorous investigation by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force, MTA, Mayor’s office, and the prosecution of the responsible parties, ensuring that the applicable hate crimes statutes are applied. If the driver is found to have acted in a negligent manner on the basis of either Ms. Martinez race/ethnicity/ancestry/or perceived religion, please hold the driver accountable for their actions and discipline them. Please take hate crimes against Asian-Americans seriously. A petition entitled, Condemn anti-Asian hate crimes and hold MTA accountable! with the signatures of over 2000 concerned Asian Americans and supporters can be found online at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mtahate1/petition.html
Please take a position and a stand to let the Asian American community and American society as a whole know that hate crimes will not be tolerated. Thank you for your thoughtful consideration of this matter.”
Nagi said,
April 12, 2007 at 11:18 pm
Good clues,
we should be able to identify the driver with these facts.
Jun Zuniga said,
April 13, 2007 at 3:48 am
Hey guys,
Just wanted to suggest that you interview Jian Feng Xu and/or Rosemarie Arnold, Esq., board member of the United Chinese Association of Brooklyn, who noted the group is currently working on a press conference with Ms. Martinez and her attorney for your podcast. Great work.
United Chinese Association of Brooklyn
223 Kings Highway
Brooklyn, NY 11233
718-256-0404
www.ucaob.org
http://www.ucaob.org/index.html
Rosemarie Arnold, Esq.
Law Offices Rosemarie Arnold
1386 Palisade Avenue Fort Lee, NJ 07024
T: (201) 461-1111 F: (201) 461-1666
http://www.rosemariearnold.com/
Also, just to update you, last night I received a call from Detective Flannery from the NYPD Hate Crimes Task force. He also left a message on the online petition that stated: “The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force upon review and investigation of the facts has deemed this incident a confirmed bias incident. The two perpetrators were arrested within six days and are being charged with hate crime charges.” This was in response to a letter that was sent to the following people:
Commanding Officer – 63rd Precinct NYPD Captain Frank V. Cangiarella
HATE CRIMES TASK FORCE NYPD Commanding Officer Inspector Michael J. Osgood
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
MTA Bus President Tom Savage
Rosemarie Arnold, Esq. - Counsel for Marie Stefanie Martinez
Organization of Chinese Americans
Japanese American Citizens League
National Federation of Filipino American Associations
Asian American Justice Center
Asian Law Caucus
Councilman John Liu
Again, great work with the site and podcast.
Yours in solidarity and struggle,
Jun Zuniga
Donald Lee said,
April 14, 2007 at 6:48 am
Good idea to have this site, keep up the work. If the mainstream media won’t cover this, just like other people, we will have to educate people, one person at a time via word of mouth
Alan Wong said,
April 18, 2007 at 1:04 am
Look, this is America - the land of racism. And if you don’t like it, then either you should just leave or do as I do - put a baseball bat in my car trunk, and use it whenever the hell I need to - such as when racist prick tries to give me crap!!!
BTW, I did used it a couple times, and it felt good - though I did have to pay some restitutions to those w**** p***** (what can I say, the judge is also w**** p****)!!!
Jun Zuniga said,
May 11, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Email I received today:
*******************************************************
Dear Mr. Zuniga:
I am in receipt of your second FOIL request relating to the March 16, 2007 assault of Marie Stefanie Martinez on bus route B82.
Now that you have provided me with additional information (Millard L. Seay’s correspondence of April 23, 2007 indicating that the incident was “thoroughly investigated and appropriate action will be taken”), I was able to undertake further research which indicates that there are documents regarding this incident.
I will contact you as soon as disclosable documents become available.
*******************************************************
We’ll see what happens, but it looks like more obfuscation from MTA. “As soon as disclosable documents become available.” translated, does that mean, “when MTA feels like it and only the documents we feel like providing?”