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Mayor: FBI investigating Quincy 4 case
Wednesday, July 26— Quincy Mayor William Phelan revealed today that the F.B.I. has agreed to his request to undertake an investigation of the April 30 incident in which four young Chinese-Americans were arrested, beaten and sprayed with chemical mace by Quincy police officers.
Since that incident, Karen Chen, Quan Manh Thin, Tat M. Yuen and Howard Ng have been known as the Quincy Four. At 9:00 this morning, they appeared in court for a second pre-trial hearing.
More than a hundred people jammed the second floor courtroom and corridors at Quincy District Court to support them.
Defense and prosecution lawyers conferred for an hour before appearing before a judge who set September 14 as the next date to hear pretrial motions.
The crowd then filed quietly out of the courthouse and gathered on the front lawn. An impromtu meeting was conducted in Cantonese, the Chinese dialect which most of the people understood. Remarks were then translated into English.
Attorney Zenobia Lai of Greater Boston Legal Services explained what had happened and answered questions. A representative of the Chinese Progressive Association said that it was important to “pack the courtroom” every time the Quincy Four had to be there.
Around 75 of the people marched five blocks from the courthouse to Quincy City Hall. There they picketed and chanted in English and Chinese for around half an hour. Then sixty entered the lobby to request a meeting with the mayor.
Within minutes, several police officers arrived, but there was no apparent tension. At 11:30 Mayor Phelan sent word that he was ready to meet. The people were directed to go up the back stairs to his office.
The mayor told his guests that there had been “repeated conversations between the [police] chief and the FBI” before the Feds decided to investigate the case. “The process of that investigation, I’m not familiar with,” he said.
Karen Chen said that up to then they had not been given any idea what was going on with their case. “We got beaten up for doing nothing,” she said. Then “we filed a complaint in May,” but never even got “acknowledgement” of the filing from the police.
One resident said, in translation, that she was “not comfortable with the FBI doing the investigation.” The mayor replied that he was sure they were competent and that only government could carry out such an investigation.
There was no indication how long the FBI would be in town, or when they would make their report.
The scope of the FBI investigation is also secret. But they are probably investigating the Quincy Four’s supporters as well as the Quincy Police.
Mayor Phelan said that he did not want to have a civilian police review board in Quincy. “What we’re dealing with here was more an isolated incident than a systemic problem.”
One woman whose remarks had to be translated for the mayor, questioned that judgement. “There are things that happen in the community that may not rise to the level that you hear about them,” she said.