Tomorrow afternoon in Columbus Park, community activists will gather to protest the first verdict in the Danny Chen case. Chen, a 19-year old Army enlistee and resident of the Lower East Side, was found dead at a military base in Afghanistan, following weeks of racially-tinged abuse. Late last month, the first of eight soldiers to face court martial, Sergeant Adam Holcomb, was acquitted of the most serious charges in connection with Chen’s death. A military jury recommended a 30-day sentence.
The 2 p.m. rally to demand a tougher sentence is being coordinated by City Council member Margaret Chin and the Organization of Chinese Americans-New York. A news release from Chin’s office sates, “We ask the Army to impose a more meaningful punishment in this case, and to dishonorably discharge Sgt. Holcomb from the U.S. Military… Sgt. Holcomb subjected Private Chen to an unrelenting campaign verbal and physical abuse, including bullying, hazing, and the use of ethnic slurs.”
Don’t we have a system where sentences are determined by the court not angry protesters?