Betsy Sato (far right) of the Cincinnati JACL swears in (from left) Lindsey Brashear (Cincinnati treasurer), Christine Lucas (Dayton), Kurt Miyazaki (Dayton), Don Hayashi (Dayton president), Gordon Yoshikawa (Cincinnati editor “Grains of Rice”), June McVey (Cincinnati treasurer) and Kazuya Sato (Cincinnati president).
The Cincinnati and Dayton chapters of the JACL held a joint installation dinner on March 31 at Mei Japanese restaurant in Cincinnati, Ohio, where seven officers were sworn in by former MDC Gov. Betsy Sato.
The installation was the first in-person gathering since 2020 due to the Covid pandemic. Sworn in were Lindsey Brashear (Cincinnati treasurer), Christine Lucas (Dayton), Kurt Miyazaki (Dayton), Don Hayashi (Dayton president), Gordon Yoshikawa (Cincinnati editor “Grains of Rice”), June McVey (Cincinnati treasurer) and Kazuya Sato (Cincinnati president).
Following the dinner, immigration lawyer Charleston Wang spoke about a Jan. 29 shooting incident at Tokyo Foods Store in the suburb of Evendale, Ohio, in which a suspect used a pistol to shoot the front of the store several times. The store was closed at the time, and fortunately, no injuries were reported.
The suspect, identified by authorities as Daniel Beckjord, was arrested by Evendale Police and, at press time, was still in police custody. The incident, though determined not to be a hate crime by authorities, did spark community discussion about what constitutes a hate crime/hate incident.
Ferron Yi, an agent for the Cincinnati Division of the FBI, makes a Hate Crime presentation to the Dayton and Cincinnati JACL chapters. (Photos: Courtesy of Kazuya Sato)
As a result, other invited installation dinner guests included two FBI agents and a U.S. assistant prosecutor. Agent Ferron Yi of the Cincinnati Division, gave a hate crime presentation and participated in a Q & A discussion, telling the audience that hate crimes are one of the FBI’s top priorities.
Yi shared that a hate crime is “a criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by the individual’s bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity.” She also said that there are hate crime incidents that may not be classified as a crime, but it is still vital to notify police and the FBI so that they can investigate.
“We all came away with a better understanding of what are hate crimes and hate incidents, as well as what to do when we come across such acts,” said Cincinnati President Sato. “The Cincinnati chapter will make a summary of the event in ‘The Grains of Rice’ (our publication) to disseminate the information and will be working with the Japan America Society of Greater Cincinnati to keep our eyes and ears open for future incidents.”
