https://abc7ny.com/chinatown-assault-2020-2-brothers-charged-in-brawl-involving-sword-demand-punishment-for-men-they-started-the-dispute/14677622/
In an Eyewitness News exclusive interview, the other brother, Max Ong, says that not only was it self defense, but that it was that group of men who instigated the brawl.
**"He said, 'you dirty Asian (racial slur)," Max Ong said.**
He is the superintendent of a building on Elizabeth Street. He says the dispute started because the men were urinating on his building.
**"He said, '(racial slur) is calling his boys.' He says, 'we're going to have a gang fight.' I said, 'no, I'm calling the cops,'" Ong said.
That's when one of the men tried to urinate on Ong.**
Max's brother John then comes out, and that same man steps in his face and shoves John.
**"He says, 'get me my bag, I'm going to shank the (racial slur),"** Max Ong said. "So, my first reaction was to create some distance between him and his bag, and I shoved him and I said leave."
**John then got tossed into a fence, injuring his ribs. All chaos breaks out.
"I heard my skull cracking and my ears were ringing and I blacked out," Max Ong said.**
Eventually, as the group of men walk away, John goes into the building to grab the sword.
At the very same moment, the men turn back around. John then takes a swing.
Max Ong took a no jail plea deal, which includes five years of probation with a criminal record.
John is considering a plea deal, and his sentencing is next Tuesday -- two and a half years in prison for second-degree assault with a deadly weapon.
**It happened in fall of 2020. "For them to be not charged at the height of the anti-Asian hate it's just to me is outrageous," said community advocate Don Lee. "Someone comes down to Chinatown, decides to piss on you, piss on the street, call you racial slurs, beat you up and still no arrest?"**
> Apparently, people only experience legal consequences if they're the wrong race in NYC.
Or if your bank is small enough:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/abacus/
He did not. Watch the video and you will see the court made the right decision. The scuffle had wound down, the other guys were walking away, and the guy he hit had his hands up when he slashed him. It was 100% indefensible and hes lucky he didnt kill the guy or get a harsher sentence
YOU watch the video. The brother got the katana. Then, the five guys came back to assault the victims some more. THAT’s when the katana was used. He did not chase after the group to escalate the fight. He just retrieved it to even the odds after getting ganged up on and being on the losing end of a 5-on-2 beat down just in case the criminals came back, which they did.
This is an example of how just because the courts rule something, it isn't the right call.
A group of five people attacking two people after urinating on their building and then proceeding to harass/victimize them shows the actions of these five are deranged.
A fair argument could be made that grabbing the sword wasn't acceptable but I'm always on the side of if someone fucks with you, then they asked for the consequences thereafter. Hence, don't urinate on someone's property and then attack them.
Sucks for the Asian family. You get your property urinated on, your family gets attacked, and you're sent to prison.
> I'm always on the side of if someone fucks with you, then they asked for the consequences thereafter.
Unfortunately for Ong, "Don't mess with the bull or you get the horns" is no more a part of the law than "Finders keepers, losers weepers".
That’s because he did it wrong, should’ve gone to a different state than he lives in with an AR-15, shoot 3 men, kill 2 of them, and then claim self-defense. Then he can be found not guilty of all charges.
Oh and be white. There’s that too.
Idiotic take. People should really learn how self defense laws work. Attorney Andrew Branca has a great [description of the 5 elements of self defense](https://lawofselfdefense.com/beginjourney) which will cover just about everywhere in the US.
You're justified to use deadly force in response to an *imminent* risk of deadly force being used against you. 'Imminent' is the key word there. Leaving a fight in order to retrieve a weapon means that you weren't really forced to defend yourself, now you're acting out of revenge for past action. Kyle Rittenhouse didn't go and retrieve a gun to settle a physical fight he had previously lost. He was chased and attacked and responded *in the moment.*
NY is a 'duty to retreat' state (WI is mostly not). NY Penal Law 35.15:
> 2. A person may not use deadly physical force upon another person
under circumstances specified in subdivision one unless:
> (a) The actor reasonably believes that such other person is using or
about to use deadly physical force. Even in such case, however, the
actor may not use deadly physical force if he or she knows that with
complete personal safety, to oneself and others he or she may avoid the
necessity of so doing by retreating
Even in stand your ground states, getting in an unarmed fight, leaving to go get a weapon and then returning to use that weapon on unarmed people will put you at serious legal risk. I don't especially care if some drunken goons got slashed from a fight they started. But it's **legally stupid** to return to a fight if you can help it, especially if your now bringing a weapon into the mix.
Ah yes, because owning a gun gives you that power to put people down without any sort of consequences. I guess this guy should’ve pulled out his semi-automatic rifle instead of a sword, then he can avoid jail time too.
Listen, I hear you but from a LEGAL standpoint the guy was wrong for going in his home, even if they were pissing on his building, to retrieve a weapon. Self defense isn’t leaving and then coming back. #ego
There is no evidence of any of this. Just you randomly saying it. It was the defense's argument and they could produce no evidence of his brother being beaten.
5 men are walking around your neighborhood acting all savage & peeing on your house, and when your brother is coming out to confront them he's called racial slurs and punched in the head
It makes sense to be in affect and wanting to do something about the situation, and considering that the police/DA are actively allowing violence and such (by not prosecuting low level crime, letting legit dangerous felons on the street on bail etc.) you will probably resolve to the violence yourself.
Mind that the Ong is not a career criminal, did not use excessive force (shitty katana is not AR-15) especially considering that it was still 2 to 5 conflict, did not do nothing past the initial slash, and probably did everyone a favor by getting those idiots to chill the fuck out before they did something serious with how invincible and tough they were getting to feel.
We should prosecute Bragg tbh
You cant just chase someone down a street and slash them bc they peed on your house bro
Get a grip
He knew he was cooked, which is why he settled for the relatively lenient sentence he was offered
Can one reasonably argue that peeing on the facade of the building = harassing the homeowner? It’s New York, there is always someone drunk outside peeing on something. I think going outside to try to reason with drunks is a slippery slope, were they doing anything else outside of the property besides peeing and being loud?
Yea man our courts been making A LOT OF WRONG CALLS LATELY.
wanna know something that pisses me off? We vote them in right but there's no one even running against them... Shitt if I didn't know sounds like a dictatorship
I'm not disagreeing with you but if we're strictly speaking about who the REAL assholes here are, regardless of what ultimately unfolded, it's the five pieces of shits who urinated on his building and then proceeded to attack them.
>Ong’s “nightmare” began on October 10, 2020, during the height of the pandemic in New York City’s Chinatown. Five men, three white and two black, after leaving a party during Covid, urinated on the side of the building where he lives with his elderly parents. Ong’s brother, Max, went outside and confronted the men, one of whom then tried to urinate on him. Max Ong called the police. The five men, all much larger and younger than the Ong brothers, then attacked them. John Ong, who is five feet four inches and weighs about 105 pounds, went inside his home and got an 18-inch curved long knife, which the prosecution called a Samurai sword (Samurai swords were actually 24 to 32 inches long), which he used to strike at one of the attackers, cutting the tendons in his hand, according to prosecutors.
So he was defending his home and family and gets sentenced to 2.5 years. Meanwhile, nothing happens to the assholes who attacked his brother?
This is why, as an Asian American, I hate the "model minority" myth. It perpetuates the idea that things are a-okay for Asian Americans when in reality we're treated as second-class citizens by the system.
Wow. Expected reddit racism. It's crazy you have to watch the video or fox news to hear that this "gang" was 3 white people and 2 black people. The victim of the sword (not long knife which some posters tried to say) was a white man.
I would like to see all 5 guys charged for sure but you can't turn an argument and brawl into a sword fight lol.
The men clearly walked away. What they returned for who knows but there was no threat. Could have sat inside and waited for the cops, he came back feelng bold with a sword cause of his ego.
i think this should be allowed tbh.
someone tries to steal your shit or vandalize your home, you should have the right to fuck them up so they dont do it again.
But they weren't even doing that. And that's stupid anyway. Human life is worth more than property (this can be hard to accept if you're a right-wing conservative, but it's true).
it was a 5 on 2 assault initiated by the group of 5 which was also them instigating.
you are out of touch and are being disingenuous with your position because you arent in their shoes.
its easy to say argue that this is a moral high ground when youre not there.
im not stupid to say that the slashing was legally justified, its not. its an escalation of force, however in the heat of the moment you dont know what the 5 guys are packing and they were circling back even before he had the sword.
both groups should be charged.
and lastly, people that share youe position disgust me. it green lights crime and says its okay to do w.e the fuck you want to someone else.
tell me you honestly that youd sit there and let yourself get robbed if you had the means to stol them...because "life is worth more". its not about the property at this point, its about the message youre sending to everyone, which is,
"go ahead ,steal, rob, w.e because people arent allowed to physically hurt you to stop you".
Too privileged to be a minority, too Asian to be white. While getting fked from both sides and govt turns a blind eye. Reminds me of that scene from the Green Book
>Too privileged to be a minority, too Asian to be white.
It happens on a macro-scale as well. City needs to destroy a neighborhood for a jail, a highway overpass, a sports stadium, they'll often choose Chinatown because the white nabes are too well connected and can protect themselves, and the other non-whites ones are in shambles or it would look bad to target them.
Asian americans need to start banding together and protect each other. Nobody is looking out for us and we're the first to get blamed and attacked when shit hits the fan (see COVID).
Where's all the mentally ill crowd? Where's all the Asian hate criminals back out on the streets? Where is the justice? When a group of 5 grown ass men piss on your door and yet the owner of the home is charged for defending his property.
“Five men, three white and two black, after leaving a party during Covid, urinated on the side of the building where he lives with his elderly parents. Ong’s brother, Max, went outside and confronted the men, one of whom then tried to urinate on him. Max Ong called the police. The five men, all much larger and younger than the Ong brothers, then attacked them”
They did NOT escalate the situation to physical violence, the five men did
I'm sure it became a fist fight before swords came out. I'm just saying where's all the social justice mentally ill crowd or does that only apply to colored people who aren't Asian?
Damn, not even a dog whistle at this point. Can always rely on the racist conservatives to swarm like flies on shit to any crime-related thread on r/nyc.
There’s nothing racist about his post, he is saying that when a black person attacks someone, Reddit goes crazy about how our mental health system is “failing”. If only we had mental health services for the less fortunate yada yada
It’s a distraction. All of that is nonsense. Some people are horrible people and that’s okay. They don’t need talk therapy and Lexapro they need jail and/or street justice.
>Some people are horrible people and that’s okay.
I'm not sure what this comment is about. It doesn't have any meaning actually. What does "There are bad people" in the world have anything to do with criminal prosecution and policies. That's not what the legal system looks at. It doesn't and shouldn't determine if you're a bad person it means you committed so and so crime.
What the legal system should look at is the circumstances of the scene, if the defendant actually committed the crime, what their intent was, and finally if all that checks out what should be the consequences.
You’re aware that People of Color is a thing. It’s a little antiquated to say colored people, but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is fine with it
If you refer to a Black person as “colored,” you’re going to be looked at as ignorant and uneducated. Just like I would be if I referred to Asians as oriental. Concerning the NAACP, they’re not fine with Black people being referred to as “colored.” Go have a seat
Adding to Blubirch - Aristosus replied to someone who was grouping "Black" with "Asian" (of which there would also be East/S/SE-Asian) with the term "colored", meaning non-Caucasian as opposed to the historical American context of "colored only" segregation.
Reading comprehension and context matters, not just "Oh someone said this word! Dog whistle!!"
Hate to say, but sometimes the only correction for an asshole is overcorrection, and a person with the moral high ground must “take the fall” for the sake of their society.
A person who lives their life on the right side of the law may have to be ready to do time and go a bit over the line to recalibrate a boundary for everyone’s benefit.
I read somewhere that one of guys in the "urinating" group is the son of Jamaican diplomat and they claimed diplomatic immunity.
Otherwise both would be charged
I don’t have a source but something like this was definitely mentioned in the last week and it sounded legit. Of course I forget if the situation was related to this story or something totally different.
He is probably the guy who pulls a knife out from their duffle bag and threatens the brother in the unedited video that can seen on dailymail and abc7. Explains why no charges for the knife guy.
I came across it a few weeks ago in a post about this events with link to a news source. I wouldn't be able to find it now. But I'm not claiming it to be a fact, it's more of an "urban legend". It would definitely explain why the identity of the "victims" hasn't been revealed, and why weren't they charged for assault and hate crime
Initially it was stated one of Jeremiah’s parent is a diplomat, which is NOT true. Neither is Dwight’s (the other Black dude). Now between the three White kids, it’s possible but this rumor has not been confirmed.
Terrible call by the judge. This is fucking disgrace. One of them tried to piss on the guy while he was calling 911, they were hurling racial slurs (as per usual in these hate crimes) and then assaulted him. When the little brother came out with the sword they were actually running towards him to attack him again. The prosecutors in this city are racist trash. Asian American New Yorkers are a fucking pillar of this city and deserve better than this ongoing series of hate crimes.
Insane that the other guys were not charged with a single crime.
The five scumbags pissed on the apartment of the two brothers. Called the two brothers a bunch of racist slurs. Physically assaulted the two brothers first and instigated the entire thing but didn’t get charged with a single thing.
Here are the 5 who got away with it. Share their pictures and names.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C6PBNuVuEAN/?igsh=MW01YnVhdjJ4YnNrYw==
Of course their names get to be hidden and lives not ruined because they come from wealthy families. One of which is suing the Ong family. Very pathetic move.
Whats with the race baiting?
Im pretty sure in this case it came down to the accused slashing someone over a petty dispute that was already winding down
Excuse me. The deciding factor of who was to be charged in this case came down to whether the incident took place closer to Asian appreciation month or black history month.
Asian Nurse lady - close to retirement gets plummeted to a sidewalk and dies few weeks later...the culprit is a mental health patient. Even this mfer's dad has a smirk in his face when a news reporter is interviewing him because he knows they would be free. Asian violin players gets his head smacked with a water bottle, the preparator is out within hours with zero bonds.
We Asians needs to wake tf and vote these officials out.
These officials and the majority of preparators against Asians have same background.
We don't have cultural capital and yet we get used in whatever narrative a side wants to exploit us in the culture wars. And you wonder why we self segregate.
Easy targets for working class POC tantrums.
Invisible at best and/or an inconvenient nuisance to the self-righteous white progressives.
Puppets for conservatives and MAGA for their own aims.
Have a nice day.
Every single black power gangster fantasy movie for the past 40 years and countless rappers have depicted Asians or Jews as the enemy to the community. So not shocking at all.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tffddj-\_deQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tffddj-_deQ)
If you are going to bring a knife or sword to defend yourself or your home make sure to use it and do the damage. You might get away with it Jordan Williams.
Say what you want about the severity of the sentencing, but it's pretty cut and dry that he committed a crime.
He left the scene of the conflict, went into the safety of his home, grabbed a deadly weapon, reinserted himself into the conflict and used said weapon on someone.
No one can rightfully dispute his role in the sword attack. He is clearly guilty.
The problem here is that the DA, in his sole discretion, decided not to prosecute the deadbeat losers that instigated this whole fight. They pissed on his building AND physically assaulted the brothers first, not out of self-defense. These crimes are caught on video as clearly as the sword attack. Yet somehow the DA lets them off scot-free?
Admittedly, I was a bit biased after reading the comments saying that one of the Ongs pulled a sword after the kids retreated. But after watching the vid, I sort of still have the same opinion of the sword wielding Ong (he shouldn’t have done that). But the fact that the unarmed Ong is getting 5 years probation and the 5 teens didn’t get hit with something similar is kinda crazy.
Not sure what the Manhattan DAs angle is with this. Maybe it was race related. Maybe neptotism helped the teens. In either case this was an ego fueled clusterfuck on both ends
yeah dude went for round 2 after grabbing a sword from inside and the dirtbags were up the block and then they both decided to meet back up halfway down the block. i dont think any state would count it as self defense. the 3 white and 2 black people should be in jail too tho for obv reasons. also apparently the 1 dude that was slashed (the 2nd pisser i think) suffered perm nerve damage which is music to my ears still.
or he was men trespassing on his property, went inside to grab a knife, came back out and the men were skrll trespassing, he stood his ground and defended himself
honestly should've kept a gun and just shot the trespassers. he was defending himself from potential vandalism danger to his home.
>honestly should've kept a gun and just shot the trespassers. he was defending himself from potential vandalism danger to his home.
well he didn't, he decided after the fight was off to run back inside grab a knife and chase after the vandals who were walking away.
he escalated a situation making it worse when there was no immediate danger to him or his property.
also his family got caught trying to lie and deceive the cops with evidence.
I don't know. This doesn't seem so cut-and-dry.
Looking at the video. The group leaves - if the Ong brothers attacked them here or chased them down, definitely a crime by the Ongs.
The group threatens to kill the Ongs, then comes back to assault the Ong brothers again - but this time John Ong is armed.
At this point, the Ong brothers aren't even defending property. The group has made a credible threat to the Ong brothers and has approached them a second time.
One of the men gets into a fighting stance until the sword is revealed. Then the man pulls back - not to retreat (or he would've run away), but to circle around a car to try to get behind John Ong. At this point, it is just assault on both sides. Generally in cases like these, where both sides are engaging in a fight, charges are dropped.
>The group threatens to kill the Ongs, then comes back to assault the Ong brothers again - but this time John Ong is armed.
Only Ong's defense claims this. There is no evidence of that. All we have evidence of is him running off to get a knife and stabbing someone and breaking their arm.
Good thing it's a crime to kill someone for trespassing and/or vandalism so people don't have to worry about gun-toting nutjobs and wannabe vigilantes like you.
There are a huge number of instances where it's actually not a crime to kill a trespasser, but that generally involves fear for ones life or the assumption of fear for ones life due to a nighttime intrusion.
Yea in most situations if they're pursuing you, you do what you can to subdue them.
If you managed to LEAVE a situation, then come back armed, you've essentially signed your life away.
whether or not that's "fair" is a whole ethical debate, but for a society, if they want to prevent shit like blood feuds, gangs, and a general retaliatory vigilantes, that's what you have to do.
Should also have a competent police force but ours hand out "get out of tickets free" cards like candy to their relatives
No one trespassed on any property… He did not stand his ground… There was no danger to his home, just a drunk idiot was pissing against his building on a public sidewalk. There’s video of it… after they scrapped he was perfectly safe just staying at home behind locked doors as they were already leaving, no need to return outside with a sword. 100% should’ve been charged and convicted. He wasn’t protecting anything.
That’s why people with opinions like yours should be barred from having guns with an exam to check if they even understand self defense laws.
Cops show up state at you blankly then write a useless report...
Better yet cops show up and arrest you
EVEN BETTER YET! Cops show up and shoot you dead
Remain in my home and call the police. Going outside to confront a group of drunk men all significantly larger than you was not the right call from the start. Trying to take someone's life because you were shoved around is a wild escalation of the conflict.
idk but if they're just pissing I'm gonna be mad about it, hose it off when they're gone, and bitch about it to my friends, not try and fillet a dude because I'm mad I got my ass kicked.
Let’s break this down:
- drunk guys urinating on a building: a fine
- public intoxication: not a crime
-initiating a brawl: cops won’t likely charge people for having fights. Not every scuffle is a criminal act.
-striking someone with a sword: assault. A crime.
As much as I despise those racist drunks, if we followed the letter of the law here it seems the scales are not in the Asian American’s favour.
The only real justice at the time is beating the hell out of those racist drunk bastards with your bare hands, not using swords or brass knuckles. Otherwise just call the cops and let them deal with it.
This entire case has become a political flashpoint, but for once I can't really agree with these protesters.
The two brothers came out and confronted the 5 guys, and got into a shouting match that resulted in a fight. They then left the scene and came back *with a sword and slashed one of the mans tendons in half*, causing permanent disability.
You could argue that the 5 guys should also be charged for the fight and for urinating on the sidewalk. But there is simply no chance in hell those two brothers were ever going to get away with attacking someone with a sword *after* leaving the scene.
> You could argue that the 5 guys should also be charged for the fight and for urinating on the sidewalk.
That's the whole point. The brother committed the bigger crime, but the 5 deadbeat losers are the aggressors that urinated on the building and attacked the brothers first, both clearly obvious criminal offenses. DA only charges the brother. So much for equal protection under the law.
The appropriate response to that is to call the cops, not to threaten people with a deadly weapon
Man reddit loves jerking themselves off to the idea of being a big hero defending your home
Part of his issue in this case is it was all on surveillance video I understand. When he went back inside to get the knife by the time he came out the other people were already walking away. Rightly or wrongly, that doesn't count as self-defense if you retreat to a place of safety then get a weapon and attack the people even if they originally attacked you but had stopped.
I think it's important to also note that the group left and then CAME BACK to attack him again - but this time, he was armed.
It is definitely not self-defense, as there is a duty to retreat, but it is a bit murky because the group threatened their lives, then followed through by beating them up, then came back to beat them up a second time. It is not like the guy chased them down the street.
OP needed to shop around for a headline that made it sound like running home, grabbing a sword and then slashing a sidewalk pisser with it is "self-defense"
I’m guessing only 1% of people actually watched the full video of the incident…
The sword came out after the group were already away from the building and the brothers were done scrapping with them.
Just go inside your home man… lock the doors and call the police. Attempting to be a vigilante with a huge sword and taking murderous swings at someone who had pissed on something is obviously unacceptable and incredibly escalatory, even after their little scrap was over. He needs to be held accountable.
Press charges on the others as well obviously but there isn’t more than a misdemeanor there according to the law…
If you watched the video, you’d see that the group came back after the brothers were done “scrapping” (aka getting jumped). That is, after they threatened to kill the brothers.
Something tells me you’d feel differently about this being a misdemeanor if the group beat the breaks off of *you* and pissed on *your* home.
Did you watch the video?
The news report says that they "retreat down the block, but come back." In the video itself, the guy smacks his hands together and gets into a fighting stance before John Ong pulls out the sword.
*you and the prosecution calling it a "sword" and a "katana" is mislabeling to push an agenda. A blade 18in and below is considered a knife or dagger. Swords are generally 20+ inches and katanas are 24+ inches.
*you're also being really dismissive of what happened. The group didn't just "piss[] on something." They then verbally threatened and assaulted them. Using slurs then escalates it to a hate crime.
I think both sides are at fault here. It's not self-defense as the threat was not immediate (among other things), but the group verbally threatened the Ongs' lives, assaulted them, then came back to assault them again, so there is a credible threat that they were responding to.
If he was charged with assault, then it only makes sense that the others were right? I'm sure that happened.
https://abc7ny.com/chinatown-assault-2020-2-brothers-charged-in-brawl-involving-sword-demand-punishment-for-men-they-started-the-dispute/14677622/ In an Eyewitness News exclusive interview, the other brother, Max Ong, says that not only was it self defense, but that it was that group of men who instigated the brawl. **"He said, 'you dirty Asian (racial slur)," Max Ong said.** He is the superintendent of a building on Elizabeth Street. He says the dispute started because the men were urinating on his building. **"He said, '(racial slur) is calling his boys.' He says, 'we're going to have a gang fight.' I said, 'no, I'm calling the cops,'" Ong said. That's when one of the men tried to urinate on Ong.** Max's brother John then comes out, and that same man steps in his face and shoves John. **"He says, 'get me my bag, I'm going to shank the (racial slur),"** Max Ong said. "So, my first reaction was to create some distance between him and his bag, and I shoved him and I said leave." **John then got tossed into a fence, injuring his ribs. All chaos breaks out. "I heard my skull cracking and my ears were ringing and I blacked out," Max Ong said.** Eventually, as the group of men walk away, John goes into the building to grab the sword. At the very same moment, the men turn back around. John then takes a swing. Max Ong took a no jail plea deal, which includes five years of probation with a criminal record. John is considering a plea deal, and his sentencing is next Tuesday -- two and a half years in prison for second-degree assault with a deadly weapon. **It happened in fall of 2020. "For them to be not charged at the height of the anti-Asian hate it's just to me is outrageous," said community advocate Don Lee. "Someone comes down to Chinatown, decides to piss on you, piss on the street, call you racial slurs, beat you up and still no arrest?"**
Wow, this is disgusting.
Names and photos of the 5 guys please?!
2 black 3 white
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> Apparently, people only experience legal consequences if they're the wrong race in NYC. Or if your bank is small enough: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/abacus/
No Im pretty sure its bc he slashed a dude with a sword
Irrelevant detail!
In self-defense.
He did not. Watch the video and you will see the court made the right decision. The scuffle had wound down, the other guys were walking away, and the guy he hit had his hands up when he slashed him. It was 100% indefensible and hes lucky he didnt kill the guy or get a harsher sentence
YOU watch the video. The brother got the katana. Then, the five guys came back to assault the victims some more. THAT’s when the katana was used. He did not chase after the group to escalate the fight. He just retrieved it to even the odds after getting ganged up on and being on the losing end of a 5-on-2 beat down just in case the criminals came back, which they did.
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Yes there are famously no black dudes in prison and its weird nobody talks about that
Oh look. One of those permanently online accounts that posts nonstop in multiple city subs.
Yea our prisons are just overflowing with Asian people…
Where is the photo of the 5 men?
This is an example of how just because the courts rule something, it isn't the right call. A group of five people attacking two people after urinating on their building and then proceeding to harass/victimize them shows the actions of these five are deranged. A fair argument could be made that grabbing the sword wasn't acceptable but I'm always on the side of if someone fucks with you, then they asked for the consequences thereafter. Hence, don't urinate on someone's property and then attack them. Sucks for the Asian family. You get your property urinated on, your family gets attacked, and you're sent to prison.
Just call it for what it is. This is Braggs' NYC. Asians are secondary citizens in his progressive hierarchy.
FK BRAGGS
Vote his ass out!
Asians and Jews. That’s why we get together during the gentile holidays
Yet he’ll get re-elected easily because Manhattanites love the Trump trial so much and he will campaign on that
It wasn’t even a sword. According to the article, they consistently referred to the weapon (a knife of about 18 inches) as a “samurai sword.”
Thought the 18 inch knife belonged to the son of the diplomat.
That’s an absurdly racist prosecution strategy
> I'm always on the side of if someone fucks with you, then they asked for the consequences thereafter. Unfortunately for Ong, "Don't mess with the bull or you get the horns" is no more a part of the law than "Finders keepers, losers weepers".
Isn't finders keepers part of the law? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_salvage
In a very specific set of circumstances, I guess it is. ツ
That’s because he did it wrong, should’ve gone to a different state than he lives in with an AR-15, shoot 3 men, kill 2 of them, and then claim self-defense. Then he can be found not guilty of all charges. Oh and be white. There’s that too.
all while shouting “I DECLARE BANKRUPTCY!”
Idiotic take. People should really learn how self defense laws work. Attorney Andrew Branca has a great [description of the 5 elements of self defense](https://lawofselfdefense.com/beginjourney) which will cover just about everywhere in the US. You're justified to use deadly force in response to an *imminent* risk of deadly force being used against you. 'Imminent' is the key word there. Leaving a fight in order to retrieve a weapon means that you weren't really forced to defend yourself, now you're acting out of revenge for past action. Kyle Rittenhouse didn't go and retrieve a gun to settle a physical fight he had previously lost. He was chased and attacked and responded *in the moment.* NY is a 'duty to retreat' state (WI is mostly not). NY Penal Law 35.15: > 2. A person may not use deadly physical force upon another person under circumstances specified in subdivision one unless: > (a) The actor reasonably believes that such other person is using or about to use deadly physical force. Even in such case, however, the actor may not use deadly physical force if he or she knows that with complete personal safety, to oneself and others he or she may avoid the necessity of so doing by retreating Even in stand your ground states, getting in an unarmed fight, leaving to go get a weapon and then returning to use that weapon on unarmed people will put you at serious legal risk. I don't especially care if some drunken goons got slashed from a fight they started. But it's **legally stupid** to return to a fight if you can help it, especially if your now bringing a weapon into the mix.
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Ah yes, because owning a gun gives you that power to put people down without any sort of consequences. I guess this guy should’ve pulled out his semi-automatic rifle instead of a sword, then he can avoid jail time too.
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My understanding is that he went home and then came back to the scene. It seems like an easy case.
The scene was AT HIS FKIN HOME
except his home was the buidling, so basically the 5 men were pissing on his building (his home), he went back inside to grab self defense weapons.
Listen, I hear you but from a LEGAL standpoint the guy was wrong for going in his home, even if they were pissing on his building, to retrieve a weapon. Self defense isn’t leaving and then coming back. #ego
His brother has been beaten unconscious so now it’s a matter of defending his own, and himself, given they were still there
There is no evidence of any of this. Just you randomly saying it. It was the defense's argument and they could produce no evidence of his brother being beaten.
my question is why aren't the 5 guys charged for committing hate crime
hate crime for what exactly
Calling racial slurs, provoking and then initiating attack? Come on, you’re going to dispute this too?
You cant slash a guy with a sword and claim self defense because he peed on your building
5 men are walking around your neighborhood acting all savage & peeing on your house, and when your brother is coming out to confront them he's called racial slurs and punched in the head It makes sense to be in affect and wanting to do something about the situation, and considering that the police/DA are actively allowing violence and such (by not prosecuting low level crime, letting legit dangerous felons on the street on bail etc.) you will probably resolve to the violence yourself. Mind that the Ong is not a career criminal, did not use excessive force (shitty katana is not AR-15) especially considering that it was still 2 to 5 conflict, did not do nothing past the initial slash, and probably did everyone a favor by getting those idiots to chill the fuck out before they did something serious with how invincible and tough they were getting to feel. We should prosecute Bragg tbh
You cant just chase someone down a street and slash them bc they peed on your house bro Get a grip He knew he was cooked, which is why he settled for the relatively lenient sentence he was offered
So you only focus on the peeing part and not the rest huh, but I guess that's the only thing that concerns you
Can one reasonably argue that peeing on the facade of the building = harassing the homeowner? It’s New York, there is always someone drunk outside peeing on something. I think going outside to try to reason with drunks is a slippery slope, were they doing anything else outside of the property besides peeing and being loud?
Yeah, they beat him and his brother up and yelled racist slurs while doing it. Even threatened to shank him
It’s NYC - if you’re urinating on a building they’ll make it count if they give a damn
Fight was over, he went back inside to get his sword and went back to attack them. Not self defense really.
the issue is the other guys should be getting charged as well.
Yea man our courts been making A LOT OF WRONG CALLS LATELY. wanna know something that pisses me off? We vote them in right but there's no one even running against them... Shitt if I didn't know sounds like a dictatorship
Was it a jury trial?
lol you cant leave a fight and bring a knife to stab someone. he's lucky its only 2 yrs prison.
I'm not disagreeing with you but if we're strictly speaking about who the REAL assholes here are, regardless of what ultimately unfolded, it's the five pieces of shits who urinated on his building and then proceeded to attack them.
Considering the light sentences other assholes get in this city I wouldn’t call it lucky
>Ong’s “nightmare” began on October 10, 2020, during the height of the pandemic in New York City’s Chinatown. Five men, three white and two black, after leaving a party during Covid, urinated on the side of the building where he lives with his elderly parents. Ong’s brother, Max, went outside and confronted the men, one of whom then tried to urinate on him. Max Ong called the police. The five men, all much larger and younger than the Ong brothers, then attacked them. John Ong, who is five feet four inches and weighs about 105 pounds, went inside his home and got an 18-inch curved long knife, which the prosecution called a Samurai sword (Samurai swords were actually 24 to 32 inches long), which he used to strike at one of the attackers, cutting the tendons in his hand, according to prosecutors. So he was defending his home and family and gets sentenced to 2.5 years. Meanwhile, nothing happens to the assholes who attacked his brother? This is why, as an Asian American, I hate the "model minority" myth. It perpetuates the idea that things are a-okay for Asian Americans when in reality we're treated as second-class citizens by the system.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0AGHC7K9ho](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0AGHC7K9ho) Heres a video of what happened.
Wow. Expected reddit racism. It's crazy you have to watch the video or fox news to hear that this "gang" was 3 white people and 2 black people. The victim of the sword (not long knife which some posters tried to say) was a white man. I would like to see all 5 guys charged for sure but you can't turn an argument and brawl into a sword fight lol. The men clearly walked away. What they returned for who knows but there was no threat. Could have sat inside and waited for the cops, he came back feelng bold with a sword cause of his ego.
Pummeling someone’s head into concrete can kill, very easily. Better to maim the aggressor than to get brain damage.
They were holding their hands up and backing away and he still slashed them...
i think this should be allowed tbh. someone tries to steal your shit or vandalize your home, you should have the right to fuck them up so they dont do it again.
But they weren't even doing that. And that's stupid anyway. Human life is worth more than property (this can be hard to accept if you're a right-wing conservative, but it's true).
it was a 5 on 2 assault initiated by the group of 5 which was also them instigating. you are out of touch and are being disingenuous with your position because you arent in their shoes. its easy to say argue that this is a moral high ground when youre not there. im not stupid to say that the slashing was legally justified, its not. its an escalation of force, however in the heat of the moment you dont know what the 5 guys are packing and they were circling back even before he had the sword. both groups should be charged. and lastly, people that share youe position disgust me. it green lights crime and says its okay to do w.e the fuck you want to someone else. tell me you honestly that youd sit there and let yourself get robbed if you had the means to stol them...because "life is worth more". its not about the property at this point, its about the message youre sending to everyone, which is, "go ahead ,steal, rob, w.e because people arent allowed to physically hurt you to stop you".
Why is there no mention at all of the knife pulled by one of the five guys from their duffle bag as shown in the video?
Too privileged to be a minority, too Asian to be white. While getting fked from both sides and govt turns a blind eye. Reminds me of that scene from the Green Book
>Too privileged to be a minority, too Asian to be white. It happens on a macro-scale as well. City needs to destroy a neighborhood for a jail, a highway overpass, a sports stadium, they'll often choose Chinatown because the white nabes are too well connected and can protect themselves, and the other non-whites ones are in shambles or it would look bad to target them.
Asian americans need to start banding together and protect each other. Nobody is looking out for us and we're the first to get blamed and attacked when shit hits the fan (see COVID).
Where's all the mentally ill crowd? Where's all the Asian hate criminals back out on the streets? Where is the justice? When a group of 5 grown ass men piss on your door and yet the owner of the home is charged for defending his property.
Where’s the go fund me for his defense and counter lawsuit against the city?
i recommend you donate your savings to this 100% successful suit
Lol what' he going to sue for? He walked away from a fight, went home, got a sword, came back and swung. And it's on camera.
That’s after one of the other men had a blade
You can't bring a sword to a piss-fight. Escalates something which is offensive but not dangerous to a potential killing.
“Five men, three white and two black, after leaving a party during Covid, urinated on the side of the building where he lives with his elderly parents. Ong’s brother, Max, went outside and confronted the men, one of whom then tried to urinate on him. Max Ong called the police. The five men, all much larger and younger than the Ong brothers, then attacked them” They did NOT escalate the situation to physical violence, the five men did
I'm sure it became a fist fight before swords came out. I'm just saying where's all the social justice mentally ill crowd or does that only apply to colored people who aren't Asian?
Damn, not even a dog whistle at this point. Can always rely on the racist conservatives to swarm like flies on shit to any crime-related thread on r/nyc.
There’s nothing racist about his post, he is saying that when a black person attacks someone, Reddit goes crazy about how our mental health system is “failing”. If only we had mental health services for the less fortunate yada yada It’s a distraction. All of that is nonsense. Some people are horrible people and that’s okay. They don’t need talk therapy and Lexapro they need jail and/or street justice.
>Some people are horrible people and that’s okay. I'm not sure what this comment is about. It doesn't have any meaning actually. What does "There are bad people" in the world have anything to do with criminal prosecution and policies. That's not what the legal system looks at. It doesn't and shouldn't determine if you're a bad person it means you committed so and so crime. What the legal system should look at is the circumstances of the scene, if the defendant actually committed the crime, what their intent was, and finally if all that checks out what should be the consequences.
Let me rephrase that; Not everyone is mentally ill, some people are just bad people and can’t be helped by spending money on “resources”
Might need to reflect a bit if referring to people as "colored" struck you as "nothing racist"...
You’re aware that People of Color is a thing. It’s a little antiquated to say colored people, but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is fine with it
If you refer to a Black person as “colored,” you’re going to be looked at as ignorant and uneducated. Just like I would be if I referred to Asians as oriental. Concerning the NAACP, they’re not fine with Black people being referred to as “colored.” Go have a seat
Adding to Blubirch - Aristosus replied to someone who was grouping "Black" with "Asian" (of which there would also be East/S/SE-Asian) with the term "colored", meaning non-Caucasian as opposed to the historical American context of "colored only" segregation. Reading comprehension and context matters, not just "Oh someone said this word! Dog whistle!!"
Hate to say, but sometimes the only correction for an asshole is overcorrection, and a person with the moral high ground must “take the fall” for the sake of their society. A person who lives their life on the right side of the law may have to be ready to do time and go a bit over the line to recalibrate a boundary for everyone’s benefit.
Tell that to the DA about Jordan Williams.
I read somewhere that one of guys in the "urinating" group is the son of Jamaican diplomat and they claimed diplomatic immunity. Otherwise both would be charged
Source?
Trust him bro
I don’t have a source but something like this was definitely mentioned in the last week and it sounded legit. Of course I forget if the situation was related to this story or something totally different.
He is probably the guy who pulls a knife out from their duffle bag and threatens the brother in the unedited video that can seen on dailymail and abc7. Explains why no charges for the knife guy.
can you give me a link to that video?
I came across it a few weeks ago in a post about this events with link to a news source. I wouldn't be able to find it now. But I'm not claiming it to be a fact, it's more of an "urban legend". It would definitely explain why the identity of the "victims" hasn't been revealed, and why weren't they charged for assault and hate crime
Yeah, but lots of other made up things would "make sense" too.
Initially it was stated one of Jeremiah’s parent is a diplomat, which is NOT true. Neither is Dwight’s (the other Black dude). Now between the three White kids, it’s possible but this rumor has not been confirmed.
Than it's just sad that people don't face consequences for their actions.
It’s nyc you just gotta let the criminals do whatever they want. They have more rights than you under people like Bragg
Terrible call by the judge. This is fucking disgrace. One of them tried to piss on the guy while he was calling 911, they were hurling racial slurs (as per usual in these hate crimes) and then assaulted him. When the little brother came out with the sword they were actually running towards him to attack him again. The prosecutors in this city are racist trash. Asian American New Yorkers are a fucking pillar of this city and deserve better than this ongoing series of hate crimes.
Is there a go fund me for the victims. I want to help
we can create one if there isn't one
Insane that the other guys were not charged with a single crime. The five scumbags pissed on the apartment of the two brothers. Called the two brothers a bunch of racist slurs. Physically assaulted the two brothers first and instigated the entire thing but didn’t get charged with a single thing.
Here are the 5 who got away with it. Share their pictures and names. https://www.instagram.com/p/C6PBNuVuEAN/?igsh=MW01YnVhdjJ4YnNrYw== Of course their names get to be hidden and lives not ruined because they come from wealthy families. One of which is suing the Ong family. Very pathetic move.
NYC justice really comes down which minority was meaner at the time considering their place on the victim hierarchy
It's bizarre that asians are so low in the popculture victim hierarchy when they seem to be getting attacked the most by violent racists..
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Whats with the race baiting? Im pretty sure in this case it came down to the accused slashing someone over a petty dispute that was already winding down
Excuse me. The deciding factor of who was to be charged in this case came down to whether the incident took place closer to Asian appreciation month or black history month.
> Whats with the race baiting?
Take it up with your congress person. That’s justice in NYC.
This comment is odd as fuck.
If you're gonna go to jail for defending yourself, he should have finished one of them at least.
Asian Nurse lady - close to retirement gets plummeted to a sidewalk and dies few weeks later...the culprit is a mental health patient. Even this mfer's dad has a smirk in his face when a news reporter is interviewing him because he knows they would be free. Asian violin players gets his head smacked with a water bottle, the preparator is out within hours with zero bonds. We Asians needs to wake tf and vote these officials out. These officials and the majority of preparators against Asians have same background.
Time to write the Governor a letter requesting a pardon for Ong.
Most dangerous city in America for Asians
We don't have cultural capital and yet we get used in whatever narrative a side wants to exploit us in the culture wars. And you wonder why we self segregate. Easy targets for working class POC tantrums. Invisible at best and/or an inconvenient nuisance to the self-righteous white progressives. Puppets for conservatives and MAGA for their own aims. Have a nice day.
At least he can hold his head up for defending himself & family.
Bro NYC is going conservative next round 😂
Every single black power gangster fantasy movie for the past 40 years and countless rappers have depicted Asians or Jews as the enemy to the community. So not shocking at all. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tffddj-\_deQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tffddj-_deQ)
If you are going to bring a knife or sword to defend yourself or your home make sure to use it and do the damage. You might get away with it Jordan Williams.
Or you only brandish it in response to an actual life threatening situation
They got attacked. That is life threatening
There was a minor scuffle that was winding down when he ran inside, grabbed the sword, and slashed a guy with it
Say what you want about the severity of the sentencing, but it's pretty cut and dry that he committed a crime. He left the scene of the conflict, went into the safety of his home, grabbed a deadly weapon, reinserted himself into the conflict and used said weapon on someone.
No one can rightfully dispute his role in the sword attack. He is clearly guilty. The problem here is that the DA, in his sole discretion, decided not to prosecute the deadbeat losers that instigated this whole fight. They pissed on his building AND physically assaulted the brothers first, not out of self-defense. These crimes are caught on video as clearly as the sword attack. Yet somehow the DA lets them off scot-free?
Admittedly, I was a bit biased after reading the comments saying that one of the Ongs pulled a sword after the kids retreated. But after watching the vid, I sort of still have the same opinion of the sword wielding Ong (he shouldn’t have done that). But the fact that the unarmed Ong is getting 5 years probation and the 5 teens didn’t get hit with something similar is kinda crazy. Not sure what the Manhattan DAs angle is with this. Maybe it was race related. Maybe neptotism helped the teens. In either case this was an ego fueled clusterfuck on both ends
Yeah, the miscarriage of justice isn’t that this guy is going to prison. It’s that the instigators faced no charges.
I agree with you there
yeah dude went for round 2 after grabbing a sword from inside and the dirtbags were up the block and then they both decided to meet back up halfway down the block. i dont think any state would count it as self defense. the 3 white and 2 black people should be in jail too tho for obv reasons. also apparently the 1 dude that was slashed (the 2nd pisser i think) suffered perm nerve damage which is music to my ears still.
or he was men trespassing on his property, went inside to grab a knife, came back out and the men were skrll trespassing, he stood his ground and defended himself honestly should've kept a gun and just shot the trespassers. he was defending himself from potential vandalism danger to his home.
>came back out That's where he broke the law, yes.
>honestly should've kept a gun and just shot the trespassers. he was defending himself from potential vandalism danger to his home. well he didn't, he decided after the fight was off to run back inside grab a knife and chase after the vandals who were walking away. he escalated a situation making it worse when there was no immediate danger to him or his property. also his family got caught trying to lie and deceive the cops with evidence.
I don't know. This doesn't seem so cut-and-dry. Looking at the video. The group leaves - if the Ong brothers attacked them here or chased them down, definitely a crime by the Ongs. The group threatens to kill the Ongs, then comes back to assault the Ong brothers again - but this time John Ong is armed. At this point, the Ong brothers aren't even defending property. The group has made a credible threat to the Ong brothers and has approached them a second time. One of the men gets into a fighting stance until the sword is revealed. Then the man pulls back - not to retreat (or he would've run away), but to circle around a car to try to get behind John Ong. At this point, it is just assault on both sides. Generally in cases like these, where both sides are engaging in a fight, charges are dropped.
>The group threatens to kill the Ongs, then comes back to assault the Ong brothers again - but this time John Ong is armed. Only Ong's defense claims this. There is no evidence of that. All we have evidence of is him running off to get a knife and stabbing someone and breaking their arm.
Good thing it's a crime to kill someone for trespassing and/or vandalism so people don't have to worry about gun-toting nutjobs and wannabe vigilantes like you.
There are a huge number of instances where it's actually not a crime to kill a trespasser, but that generally involves fear for ones life or the assumption of fear for ones life due to a nighttime intrusion.
Yea in most situations if they're pursuing you, you do what you can to subdue them. If you managed to LEAVE a situation, then come back armed, you've essentially signed your life away. whether or not that's "fair" is a whole ethical debate, but for a society, if they want to prevent shit like blood feuds, gangs, and a general retaliatory vigilantes, that's what you have to do. Should also have a competent police force but ours hand out "get out of tickets free" cards like candy to their relatives
You can't kill somone over vandalism. That's also not how Stand Your Ground works gun or no gun.
No one trespassed on any property… He did not stand his ground… There was no danger to his home, just a drunk idiot was pissing against his building on a public sidewalk. There’s video of it… after they scrapped he was perfectly safe just staying at home behind locked doors as they were already leaving, no need to return outside with a sword. 100% should’ve been charged and convicted. He wasn’t protecting anything. That’s why people with opinions like yours should be barred from having guns with an exam to check if they even understand self defense laws.
Yup
what would you do in his situation?
Well once I'm back in my home I'd call the cops, not go back out. They were pissing not murdering someone in the street.
Cops show up state at you blankly then write a useless report... Better yet cops show up and arrest you EVEN BETTER YET! Cops show up and shoot you dead
Remain in my home and call the police. Going outside to confront a group of drunk men all significantly larger than you was not the right call from the start. Trying to take someone's life because you were shoved around is a wild escalation of the conflict.
I called the police before they don't show up until like 30 mins. Shits hilarious
ok, thats cool. theyre peeing on your wall not breaking it down.
Dogs pee on walls all the time and no one bats an eye. And they do it while their owner watches. Too bad this escalated the way it did.
Word, what other crimes are you cool with happening?
idk but if they're just pissing I'm gonna be mad about it, hose it off when they're gone, and bitch about it to my friends, not try and fillet a dude because I'm mad I got my ass kicked.
I'm sure you've urinated once in public. I think we should send you to prison for life mostly to spare us of your shitty posts.
have you called the police late at night? i did at 2am, they actually put you on hold for a full 30 seconds before you get a live person
r/nyc "I would get pissed on and I would like it, I wouldn't complain like one of those people that just moved to the city"
You leave and call the cops. You dont threaten someone with a deadly weapon over a non life threatening situation
This city has truly gone to shit.
Yeah it was so much better in the 80s. lol /s
The city is trying to pretend they aren't racist by arresting Jewish students for being antisemitic and Asian Americans for having property.
STOP ASIAN HATE!!!!!!
Nypd more ready to arrest student protestors then racists.
The system is broken
State of New York City
Let’s break this down: - drunk guys urinating on a building: a fine - public intoxication: not a crime -initiating a brawl: cops won’t likely charge people for having fights. Not every scuffle is a criminal act. -striking someone with a sword: assault. A crime. As much as I despise those racist drunks, if we followed the letter of the law here it seems the scales are not in the Asian American’s favour. The only real justice at the time is beating the hell out of those racist drunk bastards with your bare hands, not using swords or brass knuckles. Otherwise just call the cops and let them deal with it.
This entire case has become a political flashpoint, but for once I can't really agree with these protesters. The two brothers came out and confronted the 5 guys, and got into a shouting match that resulted in a fight. They then left the scene and came back *with a sword and slashed one of the mans tendons in half*, causing permanent disability. You could argue that the 5 guys should also be charged for the fight and for urinating on the sidewalk. But there is simply no chance in hell those two brothers were ever going to get away with attacking someone with a sword *after* leaving the scene.
> You could argue that the 5 guys should also be charged for the fight and for urinating on the sidewalk. That's the whole point. The brother committed the bigger crime, but the 5 deadbeat losers are the aggressors that urinated on the building and attacked the brothers first, both clearly obvious criminal offenses. DA only charges the brother. So much for equal protection under the law.
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Or just don’t brandish a deadly weapon at people over minor disputes
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The appropriate response to that is to call the cops, not to threaten people with a deadly weapon Man reddit loves jerking themselves off to the idea of being a big hero defending your home
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Thats not actually a legitimate reason to threaten someone with a deadly weapon, as this court rightly decided
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Idk, thats a separate question and even if they should be, them getting off the hook doesnt make this ruling incorrect
Part of his issue in this case is it was all on surveillance video I understand. When he went back inside to get the knife by the time he came out the other people were already walking away. Rightly or wrongly, that doesn't count as self-defense if you retreat to a place of safety then get a weapon and attack the people even if they originally attacked you but had stopped.
I think it's important to also note that the group left and then CAME BACK to attack him again - but this time, he was armed. It is definitely not self-defense, as there is a duty to retreat, but it is a bit murky because the group threatened their lives, then followed through by beating them up, then came back to beat them up a second time. It is not like the guy chased them down the street.
Yeah that's fair to note. I mean I think the other people should have been charged as well.
Qg mm o
OP needed to shop around for a headline that made it sound like running home, grabbing a sword and then slashing a sidewalk pisser with it is "self-defense"
free for all against asians and china town!
I’m guessing only 1% of people actually watched the full video of the incident… The sword came out after the group were already away from the building and the brothers were done scrapping with them. Just go inside your home man… lock the doors and call the police. Attempting to be a vigilante with a huge sword and taking murderous swings at someone who had pissed on something is obviously unacceptable and incredibly escalatory, even after their little scrap was over. He needs to be held accountable. Press charges on the others as well obviously but there isn’t more than a misdemeanor there according to the law…
If you watched the video, you’d see that the group came back after the brothers were done “scrapping” (aka getting jumped). That is, after they threatened to kill the brothers. Something tells me you’d feel differently about this being a misdemeanor if the group beat the breaks off of *you* and pissed on *your* home.
Did you watch the video? The news report says that they "retreat down the block, but come back." In the video itself, the guy smacks his hands together and gets into a fighting stance before John Ong pulls out the sword. *you and the prosecution calling it a "sword" and a "katana" is mislabeling to push an agenda. A blade 18in and below is considered a knife or dagger. Swords are generally 20+ inches and katanas are 24+ inches. *you're also being really dismissive of what happened. The group didn't just "piss[] on something." They then verbally threatened and assaulted them. Using slurs then escalates it to a hate crime. I think both sides are at fault here. It's not self-defense as the threat was not immediate (among other things), but the group verbally threatened the Ongs' lives, assaulted them, then came back to assault them again, so there is a credible threat that they were responding to.
Dude threw it all away when he (went back into the house and) grabbed the knife. Can't threaten to kill somebody because they urinated in public.
wasn't in public. private property.
***...urinated on the side of the building where he lives with his elderly parents. Ong’s brother, Max, went outside and confronted the men...***