Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. U.S. Hazing Trial Confronts Army's Delicate Race Relations by Kate Woodsome A military courtroom in North Carolina is not where the Chen family expected to spend time when they immigrated to the United States from China more than 20 years ago. But this week, Su Zhen and Yan Tao Chen traveled from New York's Chinatown area to Fort Bragg to watch the seventh round of hearings in the death of their son, Private Danny Chen. Army officials have said the 19 year-old was driven to suicide after suffering nearly daily physical abuse and racial taunting at the hands of his platoon last year. The Army charged eight of his superiors in the case after Chen shot himself in the head while on duty at a guard tower in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The trial of Staff Sergeant Andrew Van Bockel opened Wednesday in Fort Bragg. He faces charges of hazing, racial maltreatment and dereliction of duty. As in previous cases, the court dismissed a charge of negligent homicide, which would have held the accused responsible for allowing Chen to die through criminal negligence. Seeking justice Elizabeth OuYang, president of the New York branch of the [1]Organization of Chinese Americans, who is attending the hearing in support of Chen's family, said the lower level charges do not bring justice to Chen's death. "It raises [the question of] whether or not you can get justice in a military court process, particularly when they're tried by a jury of enlisted and commissioned officers," she said, adding that the courts-martial have not fully appreciated how combining racial slurs with physical abuse affected Chen. "I think what's clearly missing is the cumulative impact of six weeks of physical and emotional hazing by six superiors, and that's not being presented in a way that juries or the judge sees a full picture of what happened to him," she said. Members of Chen's platoon allegedly called the Chinese-American racial slurs like "chink" and "fortune cookie" and "dragon lady." They forced Chen, one of the weaker soldiers, to carry a sandbag while doing sprints, to do push-ups and hang upside with water in his mouth, and crawl across gravel while they pelted rocks at him. The American-born Manhattan native was also once dragged across the outpost for leaving a shower water pump on, and made to shout instructions to his fellow soldiers in Chinese, although no one else spoke it. Defense lawyers have argued that Chen, an only child who forgot his equipment and fell asleep on duty at times, took his life because he felt ashamed of his poor performance and because he thought his parents disowned him. The doctor who performed the autopsy on Chen said on the teenager's forearm, he found the words, [2]"Tell my parents I'm sorry." Punishment or abuse The case tests the fine line in the military between corrective training and abuse of soldiers preparing to go to war. "They're trying to toughen them up. So it's delicate in that they sometimes have to be harsh with them. But they shouldn't be cruel, they shouldn't maltreat them," said[3] Greg Rinckey, a former Army JAG officer and managing partner at Tully Rinckey, a military law firm based in Albany, New York. "I think in this case, where you're using racial slurs and there's a pattern of people picking on one particular soldier, I think that's really where you draw the line," he said. Rinckey said he thinks the Army was overreaching when it charged some of the accused with negligent homicide and involuntary manslaughter because of the difficulty in proving intent and a direction connection between the hazing and Chen's death. But he said the charges indicate how serious the military is taking the case. Hazing and racism are not allowed in the U.S. military, and all officers are educated in the differences between intense training and violence. George Wright, a spokesman for the U.S. Army at the Pentagon, said that distinction was not made in Chen's case. "Any time a soldier in a unit is subject to harassment and hazing and the type of brutality that was depicted in this situation, there's a breakdown in leadership and the Army has been made aware of that. We've taken steps to hold those members of Private Chen's chain of command accountable," he said. Wright said the Army respects the decisions of the juries in the cases that have been tried. Six soldiers have been punished so far. Two reached plea agreements and four were [4]convicted in courts-martial, their sentences ranging from a reduction in rank to hard labor to six months in prison. Racial lines Chen's mother and father, who earn a modest living making hairpieces and working in a restaurant, have suffered with the pain of reliving Chen's abuse at the trials. But OuYang said they're attending the hearings and testifying through an interpreter because they want justice to be served. "They've said time and time again that if it weren't for the community, they don't think they could keep going. But they don't want this to happen to anyone else's son, and they are fighting," she said. OuYang suggested the military is not owning up to its problem with racism. "There's something going on. And more needs to be done," she said. Rinckey said the military probably addresses racism better than most civilian organizations because it is so diverse. He admitted, though, that everyone has a different idea of what's acceptable. "Calling somebody who's Italian `two-slice' as his nickname is something that clearly would not be appropriate in corporate America. But in the military, it's kind of accepted that there's going to be nicknames for people. And sometimes those nicknames cross racial lines," he said. Rinckey said superiors often choose to ignore the dynamics because they're part of the culture. That is exactly the problem, according to [5]Hank Nuwer, a professor at Franklin College in Indiana and the author of four books on hazing. "There's a kind of `winked at' attitude from on top because so many people in authority were getting in trouble for authorizing hazing," he said. "The idea would be the official paperwork that comes down from the brass would be that there's absolutely no hazing." Instead of superiors carrying out the hazing, peers are more commonly doing it. Nuwer said this is more dangerous because it drives the practice underground. He said hazing, a practice that once started as a silly and sometimes degrading way for veterans to welcome newcomers into a group, is now used as a "quick-fix" way of peer bonding through shame and humiliation. "They want a homogenous group. Diversity does not mean homogenous. So you want to know that the person of color opposite you, or who is a different religion or a different ethnic [group], is going to be reliable in the trenches," he said. A question of leadership Courts-martial generally do not focus on the race of the perpetrator or the victim, but on their behavior, according to [6]Captain David Price, who spent 25 years on active duty in the [7]U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps and now practices military law with the civilian firm Jag Defense. "If the person is found guilty of the offense, then I believe you will find that [racism] could be one of the aggravating factors that would be considered in the sentencing," he said. Getting stronger sentences, especially for more senior enlisted members of the service, can be extremely difficult, Price said, because the accused would not just face prison time or fines but would lose many of the benefits acquired over a long career. To stop abusive behavior in the military, he said there must be a better way of educating officers and addressing poor leadership. "The people who engaged in the hazing, they are guilty, they need to be punished," he said. "But at a higher level, the more senior you get and are aware of this and did nothing to stop it, they are the ones that really are at fault because they are the ones who should have stopped it." A verdict in the case of Staff Sergeant Van Bockel, who is on trial now, is expected next week. The eighth and final soldier to be tried is awaiting his hearing. When it starts, the Chens plan to be there. __________________________________________________________________ [8]http://www.voanews.com/content/chinese-american-army-hazing/1547121. html References 1. http://www.oca-ny.org/ 2. http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2012/07/26/1193151 3. http://www.tullylegal.com/our-team/gregrinckey 4. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/subtitle-A/part-II/chapter-47 5. http://www.hanknuwer.com/blog/ 6. http://www.jagdefense.com/david-price.php 7. http://www.jag.navy.mil/ 8. http://www.voanews.com/content/chinese-american-army-hazing/1547121.html