geoff: The national focus on
acts of police brutality often
overlooks victims who are Asian
American and pacific islander.
That's because data show that,
as a whole, they experience low
rates of fatal police violence.
But, new research shows the
risks some in that community
face are much higher.
Ali rogin starts this report in
Antioch, California.
It is part of our race matters
series.
And a warning, some images may
be disturbing.
>> This Angelo's room, this is
his altar.
>> Cassandra quinto-collins
visits her late son Angelo's
bedroom often to help keep his
memory alive.
Cassandra: I actually, I turn
the light on every night.
I say good morning to him every
morning.
I don't know.
I'm just very sentimental.
Ali: Of course.
Cassandra: I still feel like,
you know, this is, he's here.
>> Angelo's younger sister Bella
remembers him by watching old
videos.
Bella: He always wanted to
entertain my friends and I.
You know, he would just do
cartwheels outside the house
with us.
>> Happy memories growing up in
the Philippines and the U.S.
But, his family says the Navy
veteran's thirty years were also
shaped by mental health issues.
>> He would have these
infrequent episodes of, you
know, fear and paranoia, and
during those episodes, he wanted
us to be together to make sure
that nothing happen to us.
>> One evening in December 2020,
Angelo became paranoid and tried
to restrain his mother and
sister, something they say he'd
never done before.
>> I really felt desperate for
somebody to come and help
de-escalate and just calm him
down.
Because all of us were just
really, really anxious.
>> So, Bella called 9-1-1.
>> This is where it happened.
He was laying here.
>> Police handcuffed Angelo in
Cassandra's bedroom then, she
says, they turned him on his
stomach and knelt on him.
Within minutes, he was
unresponsive.
She filmed her son being carried
out to paramedics.
Cassandra: That's when I panic.
That's when I started asking
what's happening?
What's going on?
Does he have a pulse? But nobody
was answering me.
>> He never regained
consciousness and died three
days later.
Angelo Quinto is part of a
largely overlooked group of
victims of fatal police
encounters in this country:
Asian Americans and pacific
islandersor aapis.
>> It's a hugely diverse
community with dozens and dozens
of countries of origin, really
different histories of
colonization and immigration.
And all of those things shape
their exposure to the police and
their interactions with police.
>> Gabriel Schwartz is an
epidemiologist who studies
public health and policing at
the university of California,
San Francisco.
America's more than 25 million
Asian Americans and pacific
islanders have roots in more
than 30 countries and, as a
whole, they experience the
lowest rates of fatal police
violence out of any racial group
in the U.S.
But, Schwartz says, that hides a
disturbing reality.
>> At the regional level,
pacific islanders are
experiencing levels of police
violence that are lethal, on par
with native Americans, on par
with black Americans.
And the lower southeast Asian
Americans, whose countries of
origin, were affected by the us
war in southeast Asia.
Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao,
hmong people are all
experiencing much higher levels
than other southeast Asians even
or east or south Asians.
>> Americans from southeast
asialike the Quinto familyand
pacific islanders make up less
than 40% of aapis in the U.S.
Schwartz says their outsized
risks are hidden when combined
with other Asian Americans.
He believes the unique histories
of both small communities may
play a role in the higher rates
of fatal police violence they
experience.
>> When my parents and my
sisters boarded that plane
to come to the United States in
1979, it was the first time
they've ever taken a flight.
>> Vinny eng's family moved to
Los Angeles after surviving
three years in a labor camp run
by Cambodia's brutal khmer rouge
regime.
The engs were part of the
biggest resettlement of refugees
in U.S. History.
Starting in 1975, more than one
million people fleeing
u.s.-involved conflicts in
southeast Asia moved to America.
>> For the 30 years following
their arrival to Los Angeles
they were learning something new
every day.
>> There was no long-term or
support for this wave of
southeast Asian refugees when
they arrived in the U.S.
And many struggled to get out of
poverty.
Researcher Gabriel Schwartz says
that legacy may increase the
likelihood of potentially fatal
police interactions.
>> Because that then makes
communities have higher rates of
poverty, higher rates of
discrimination in education, in
the workforce, people are
poorer, people are living in
neighborhoods that are more
overpoliced, and that puts them
in the path of the criminal
legal system.
>> Schwartz says that America's
pacific islander communities
also face those acute outcomes
in part because of their
history.
>> Many pacific islanders are
here because of U.S.
Colonization that has made the
economies of the pacific islands
much more reliant on the united
States, have fewer opportunities
than they otherwise might have.
>> Gaynor siataga is a
samoan-latina community advocate
in San Francisco.
She says police killings were a
fact of life growing up.
Gaynor siataga: I've seen it
first hand, you know, I had four
folks that are very close to me,
family, all shot and killed by
police.
>> Several of her family members
were incarcerated and she joined
a gang when she was eleven after
being sexually assaulted.
>> It was just it was a group of
folks that were way older to me
that I finally was able to share
this secret with.
As a kid, you don't know what's
wrong or right.
>> Gang life led to repeated
violence, she says
>> I think the first time I was
shot was 13.
>> And run ins with law
enforcement.
>> They even had my picture on
the dashboard, you know and I
was just a kid.
>> It's a cycle siataga is now
trying to stop.
Today, she heads the hut, a new
space dedicated to addressing
the stark disparities in her
community.
Here, pacific islanders can
access or be referred to
tailored services from a pacific
language library, to immigration
assistance, to career training.
>> There's some things that
causes the behaviors or the life
that many of us are living right
now.
And that's what I'm addressing.
>> On top of economic support,
Schwartz says, targeted mental
health services are also needed.
>> People are dealing with
mental health crises with fewer
mental health resources.
All of those things make it more
likely they're going to be
interacting with the police.
>> Vinny eng experienced that
first hand.
His sister, jazmyne, was
diagnosed with post-traumatic
stress disorder and
psycho-dissociative disorder, he
says, partly caused by her
childhood experience of working
in a labor camp.
>> That trauma of the experience
of surviving such unspeakable
experiences left unresolved
can lead to potentially violent
outcomes.
>> In 2012, at age 40, jazmyne
was shot and killed by L.A.
Sheriff's deputies after she had
an episode of paranoia at her
community clinic.
>> It was just an incredible
amount of force applied at a
situation when what really was
needed was for someone to
provide care.
>> One thing I'm still working
on is the website.
>> Back in Antioch, Angelo
Quinto's family has spent the
last two and a half years
advocating for reform.
In 2021, they helped pass a new
state law banning police
restraints which impair
breathing.
Cassandra: He's not here to tell
his story.
The advocacy we're doing right
now is to prevent other families
go through what we are going
so hopefully his story helps.
>> And earlier this month, the
city of Antioch launched a new
crisis response team that 911
dispatchers can send to respond
to low level mental health
crises and disputes.
The team is named after Angelo.
For the pbs newshour, I'm Ali
rogin in Antioch, California.
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