Racial Justice Rally in Madison, Wisconsin
November 26, 2007
A Video Report by Heidi M. Pascual
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Freedom, Inc. of Madison, Wis., and the Coalition for Community Relations (CCR) of Minnesota, led a
group of intergenerational and diverse people, mostly from the Hmong community, in a march and rally
on November 26, 2007. The group marched from the Library Mall through a sidewalk along State Street
to the Capitol steps facing the Wisconsin Department of Justice. The rally focused on the Cha Vang
case, a Hmong hunter who was brutally killed early this year by James Nichols, and the unjust verdict
that Nichols' crime was not a hate crime. Nichols was charged with "2nd degree intentional homicide"
which does not require a mandatory life sentence.
Speakers included activists Peng Her, Kabzuag Vaj, Sal Carranza, Ernestine Moss, and HND's Nou
Vang, among others. After the rally, five representatives from the Asian American community were
allowed an audience with three staff members of the WI Attorney General's Office (not the AG himself).
The group sought the maximum penalty to be imposed on Nichols and to create an infrastructure for
consistent and direct communication with the AG, such as a Hmong task force, if possible. No
commitment from the AG staff was reported by the five who went in. "I haven't had the experience of
meeting like this with a group of people on this table," said one of the AG staff on the headtable. It's high
time the AG's staff learned to acquire the experience and the cultural sensitivity to be in other people's
shoes.
FLASH!! On November 28, Marinette County Circuit Judge David Miron sentenced Nichols to
the maximum 69 years in prison, plus 30 years extended supervision after serving his prison
term!
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