Dylan Yang - A victim of the injustice system in the US. A victim of the silenced Hmong

From Stay Strong Dylan Yang

A year ago, I wrote two responses to Dylan Yang's case here and here, and I still stand the same today when his trial took place. I knew it was unfair all along. What ticks me off about the article reported by the Wausau Daily Herald was that they added a year to Dylan's age, making him 16, and didn't add it to Powell's. If you're adding a year to Dylan's age to your headline, you should add another to Isaiah. Don't write a 16 vs 13 story. It's a 13 year old, who was transported by a legal adult over age 18, who also provided a BB gun, to a 15 year old's residence. Why would you say "one group" when you can specify that the 13 year old made the effort and had intentions to go to one's house? To Marathon County Assistant District Attorney Lesli Pluster, I'd like to see your own family handle their "haters" with a bb gun at their own residence to know what it feels like to be unprepared for an attack. There's very little time for anyone to identify if a gun is real or not. What about the owner of the bb gun? What happened to gun control? What about the bb gun owner's punishment?

I read a few comments from the newspaper site, and I'm glad some non-Hmong commenters actually asked why he was trial as an adult, and that it was reasonable for his panic response.

Dylan is a victim of the injustice system in the US. A victim of the silenced Hmong.

A few comments throughout Facebook asked where were the Hmong leaders, where was the 18 clans, where were the Hmong Associations/Centers out there? I think I'm more concerned of where the educated Hmong professionals were, maybe someone like me (if I fit that term).

After Chai Vang, Koua Fong Lee, Fong Lee, Sao Lue Vang, and other unknown Hmong fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters, where are our Hmong lawyers? You think a non-Hmong person is going to stick up for us? ! There are so many cases that barely justifies anything close to the conditions of Dylan's.

All these hunting cases, the Hmong hunter was wrong for going to property that wasn't theirs, and that was what Isaiah did to Dylan. Sao Lue Vang was injured for going to private property, which I don't believe so to this day, and Kevin Elberg only served "10 days in jail and two years probation. He must also serve 72 hours of community service in the Hmong community." Koua Fong Lee was chased and shot by police because he wasn't suppose to be where he was. Chai Vang "trespassed." And they were found at partial or full fault. But not Isaiah. He was not wrong for going to someone else's residence, along with aiming a bb gun at them. That's just totally normal in all neighborhoods and Dylan's family didn't get the memo.

Recently, a man in Milwauke, WI killed a Hmong couple and Puerto Rican father. He argued mental illness and is only at a $150,000 bail, while Dylan's was set at 1 million. That guy killed 3 people, and he's fricken 38! Dylan was only 15 and killed 1. How does that math work? You can read about two other cases in my previous posts.

This case should show educators the importance to have Hmong dialogues. 

No teacher or university out there is ready to talk about the discrimination and injustice Hmong people are facing upon their arrival in the US. This case should show educators the importance to have Hmong dialogues. And since that won't be happening any time soon, we must seek that knowledge ourselves, which was I took a group of high school girls to the International Conference on Hmong Studies, St. Paul, MN when I worked at a high school in 2014. It happens every two years, and this weekend was their 6th conference.

This case is a cry for unity or fear, since he/we can't pay our way out of the law. Our educated professionals need to get on this, or we continue to fear for being Hmong. This is where education comes in. Education is the only card you can play to change the system. Get a damn degree, so you have a higher card to play in the system. It'll be a long time until someone will reopen these cases and prove their innocence.

Politics matter. Imagine if we had a Hmong person. They'd probably write or take a stand. For now, you can at least worry about who the next president is.