Death on the Fourth of July: The Story of a Killing, a Trial, and Hate Crime in America [Hardcover]

David Neiwert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 16, 2004

On July 4, 2000, three young Asian American men visiting the small town of Ocean Shores, Washington, were attacked by a group of skinheads in the parking lot of a Texaco station. Threats and slurs gave way to violence and, ultimately, a fatal stabbing. But this tragedy culminated with a twist. A young white man, flaunting a Confederate flag just moments before, was slain by one of his would-be victims. In the ensuing murder trial, a harsh lesson on what it really means to be an American unfolded, exposing the layers of distrust between minorities and whites in rural America and revealing the dirty little secret that haunts many small towns: hate crime.
In Death on the Fourth of July, veteran journalist David Neiwert explores the hard questions about hate crimes that few are willing to engage. He shares the stories behind the Ocean Shores case through first-hand interviews, and weaves them through an expert examination of the myths, legal issues, and history surrounding these controversial crimes. Death on the Fourth of July provides the most clear-headed and rational thinking on this loaded issue yet published, all within the context of one compelling real-life tragedy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

On July 4, 2000, Minh Hong and his twin brother, Hung, arrived in Ocean Shores, Wash., to celebrate the holiday. When they stopped at a convenience store to buy fireworks, they were met by a group of drunken young white men—who resembled skinheads—yelling racial slurs. A fight erupted, leaving the leader of the group of white men, Chris Kinison, dead. Minh Hong was charged with manslaughter for killing Kinison, and suddenly the victim of a hate crime became the suspect in a criminal trial. Freelance journalist Neiwert, who became acquainted with the Hong family through eating at their teriyaki shop in Seattle, provides a fast-paced account of the events surrounding this altercation and Hong's trial. The circumstances surrounding the events of that day divided the town, uncovering racist feelings below the thin veneer of smalltown sociability. Neiwert weaves chapters regarding the legal aspects of hate crimes, the myths of hate crimes and the details of other well-known, and less-known, crimes, such as the killing of Matthew Shepard, into his narrative about the Hong case. Although the book often devolves into a pseudosociological treatise in these chapters, Neiwert is at his best in reporting on the details of the trial, the feelings of the families and the disruption of the community.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Ocean Shores, Washington, July 4, 2000: three Asian American visitors to this seaside town of 3,000 were set upon by a group of skinheads in a gas-station parking lot. Predictably, the assault ended in a fatality. But the victim, Christopher Kinison, was not one of the intended victims. He was, in the author's words, the "primary perpetrator." What followed was one of the more unusual hate-crime investigations police have ever encountered. Because only the attacker was killed, the authorities were put in the awkward position of investigating the case as a homicide in which the intended victims were the prime suspects. In the eyes of the law, the deceased, a bigoted young man fond of spouting white-supremacist diatribes, was the innocent victim. Neiwert, a journalist who had once worked not far from the scene of the crime, uses this case as a springboard to a discussion of a broader issue. How does the American legal system handle hate crimes? It's a vastly complicated subject, and the author handles it delicately, intelligently, and gracefully. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; First Edition edition (July 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403965013
• ISBN-13: 978-1403965011
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,644,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Neiwert is a journalist and author and an acknowledged expert in American right-wing extremism. He has appeared Anderson Cooper 360, CNN Newsroom, and The Rachel Maddow Show and is the managing editor of the popular political blog "Crooks and Liars." His work has also appeared in "The American Prospect," "The Washington Post," MSNBC.com, Salon.com, and other publications. His previous books include "The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right" (Polipoint) and "Strawberry Days: How Internment Destroyed a Japanese-American Community" (Palgrave), and he has won a National Press Club award for Distinguished Online Journalism.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I was hooked August 24, 2004

By K. Miller

Format:Hardcover

The town's derisive nickname "Open Sores" could certainly serve as the subtitle for the book.

Out of reams of available subject matter on "hate crimes", but Neiwert chose one episode that was atypical -- the victim survived, the perpetrator didn't -- for a gripping and essay on the meaning of bias crime, and the right and wrong way the law chooses to interpret it.

I was hooked right away by an opening narrative that leads you into the lives of the Hong brothers, tourists from Seattle, who wandered into a convenience store, and then found their lives were turning into a Hitchcockian nightmare.

He borrows the basic structure of a true-crime genre -- accounts of a trial, brief bios of the lead players -- but his focus ranges widely over the way that the community, and law enforecment, simply failed to notice the trouble that was escalating.

Matters that go below the radar for those who are not targets, but which suffice to ruin lives, and turn whole communities, or even states into pariahs.

Readers of his blog ("Orcinus") know that Neiwert is paintaking with words, and is careful to parse the distinctions: since many such crimes are NOT the direct result of organized hate groups, the stereotypes ("skinheads" "rednecks") are likely as not to protect the actual perpetrators. His argument suggest better laws are only a step, but what we actually need is better training for law enforcement, and a population less disposed to give a inch to bigotry, before it erupts into violence..

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars An extraordinary look at the topic of hate crimes September 14, 2007

By Kenneth Molsberry

Format:Hardcover

As a former editor of a newspaper in Idaho when it was the home for Neo-Nazis, author David Neiwert brings his tremendous insight and his journalistic skill into his book.

His prose is well-written and engaging. His facts are thoroughly researched, and his positions are thoughtful and supported by his research. He is honest with his readers, shy about making generalizations and careful to avoid proselytizing. He lets his research speak for itself.

The book succeeds surprisingly well both as a primer for those new to the topic - carefully laying out the basic ideas and rationale behind hate crimes and laws that seek to deal with them - and for those who have experience in the topic.

A good read.

5 of 11 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Two uneasy books in one June 22, 2006

By John Lee

Format:Paperback

Neiwert tries to be two things at once -- a storyteller as well as an advocate for hate crimes laws -- and the result is a muddled effort. He interweaves the chapters with social science discussions of hate crimes and ongoing news of the trial. In addition, he repeats himself (especially the trial portion), and the book feels padded. The story itself is no more than a long magazine article, and the characterizations of the main two actors are thin. As a courtroom drama, the story lacks suspense.