{"id":6480,"date":"2021-03-06T07:13:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-06T17:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=6480"},"modified":"2021-03-06T07:13:04","modified_gmt":"2021-03-06T17:13:04","slug":"filipino-american-angelo-quinto-is-our-george-floyd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2021\/03\/06\/filipino-american-angelo-quinto-is-our-george-floyd\/","title":{"rendered":"Filipino American Angelo Quinto Is Our George Floyd"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Emil Guillermo

<\/em>If you don\u2019t know who Angelo Quinto is by now, copy a link to this and send to your friends.

Everyone needs to know about Angelo Quinto.

But the full Quinto story broke around the time of the Tiger Woods accident. Everyone knows about Woods\u2019 roll-over in Southern California that nearly killed him. Thankfully, he\u2019ll walk again.

Angelo Quinto won\u2019t.

Woods, you see, wasn\u2019t the only Asian American who deserved some headlines.

Sure, Quinto got local coverage in the San Francisco Bay Area and mentions on a few internet outlets after what happened to him was finally released.

But his story deserved more, especially when people understand how he died \u2013 the George Floyd way.

Floyd, an African American man, was handcuffed behind his back, facedown, as an officer put a knee to the back of his neck for nearly 9 minutes. He died on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis.

Quinto, an Asian American of Filipino descent, was handcuffed behind his back, facedown, as an officer put a knee to the back of his neck for over 5 minutes.

That\u2019s according to his mother and sister, who saw it all play out in a San Francisco East Bay suburb last Dec. 23.Five minutes was enough to kill Quinto.

Quinto, a 30-year-old U.S. Navy veteran born in the Philippines, was at his family\u2019s home in Antioch, California when he experienced what has been described as a mental health episode.

Quinto\u2019s 18-year-old sister, Bella Collins, said she called 911 for help when she saw Quinto holding their mother and feared he would hurt her. She said her brother was dishonorably discharged from the Navy in 2019 due to food allergies but had suffered from depression.\u00a0

She said that after her brother was in an altercation and hospitalized in 2020, he had moments of paranoia and anxiety.

As they all waited for help that night just days before Christmas, Quinto\u2019s mother, Cassandra Quinto-Collins, says she hugged her son and tried to calm him down.

But then the police arrived.

Quinto-Collins described her son\u2019s reaction when the police arrived: \u201c[Angelo] said \u2018Please don\u2019t kill me. Please don\u2019t kill me,\u2019 as they were putting him on the ground. They handcuffed him and one officer put his knee on the back of his neck the whole time I was in the room.\u201d

The family\u2019s lawyer, local civil rights attorney John Burris, said Quinto was \u201csnatched\u201d from his mom. Quinto\u2019s sister said one officer held him by the legs while another knelt on Quinto\u2019s neck for nearly five minutes.

In a videotape released by the family\u2019s attorney, Quinto can be seen unconscious on a bedroom floor, his face bloodied. You can see him handcuffed from behind his back as police try to assess the situation. After a minute, Quinto is carried out on a plastic sheet into a hallway. After another minute, finally an attempt is made to resuscitate him.

\u201cDoes he have a pulse, what is happening?\u201d Quinto\u2019s mother can be heard saying in her Filipino accent. The responders can be heard pumping Angelo Quinto\u2019s chest in vain.

Quinto-Collins later expressed her shock. \u201cI trusted the police because I thought they knew what they were doing, but he was actually passive and visibly not dangerous or a threat. So, it was absolutely unnecessary what they did to him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angelo was unconscious when taken to the hospital and died three days later on Dec. 26.

It\u2019s remarkable how the story had been kept under wraps for nearly two months.\u00a0 Not a peep from the police. Even the mayor of Antioch said he hadn\u2019t heard about it until he saw it on social media.

It shouldn\u2019t be that way.

We only heard about it because the family\u2019s legal counsel, led by Burris, announced on Feb. 18, that a claim had been filed against the Antioch Police Department. The city now has 45 days to respond before wrongful death and civil rights lawsuits are filed on behalf of Quinto, his mother, and his sister.

How Quinto died makes this case important not just to Antioch, but to the nation.

\u201cI refer to it as the George Floyd technique; that\u2019s what snuffed the life out of him and that cannot be a lawful technique,\u201d Burris said, indicating the similarities between Quinto\u2019s death and the death of Floyd, a Black man who yelled, \u201cI can\u2019t breathe\u201d as a police officer placed a knee to his neck.

\u201cWe know the young man\u2019s dead as a consequence of police activity,\u201d Burris said, adding that officers didn\u2019t have to \u201csnatch him from his mother\u2019s person,\u201d but rather talk to him in order to de-escalate the situation. \u201cAll they had to do is follow the rules.\u201d

But they didn\u2019t. And that\u2019s why this story must be heard.

People call for defunding the police, but that doesn\u2019t address some underlying problems. Police need retraining, so that they can gauge a situation and be a respectful presence rather than a disruptive one that only makes things worse.

Given the range of issues officers face, from domestic violence to mental health, police need to be better problem solvers, rather than just crime-busters. Maybe someone who is a combination EMT\/psychologist\/cop.

Angelo Quinto\u2019s life depended on that new model of policing, that new kind of cop. The ones that didn\u2019t show up in Antioch the night of Dec. 23.

Let\u2019s hope Quinto\u2019s case gains more media attention, an important factor in the quest for justice. The family\u2019s attorney Burris, an African American, said winning that fight will take a community to \u201crise up\u201d and ask the uncomfortable questions of people in power.

\u201cLike the late great John Lewis would say, \u2018Make good trouble,’\u201d Burris said as he stood with the family in front of gift-wrapped boxes \u2013 Angelo Quinto\u2019s unopened Christmas presents. \u201cThat\u2019s what we intend to do.\u201d

Will the community \u201crise up\u201d? This isn\u2019t just a local San Francisco Bay Area story.

That\u2019s the legal team. What is the nationwide Filipino American community going to do?

\u201cRise up\u201d?

Here\u2019s your chance. At the very least we need to let people know that a Filipino American has been a victim of police and has died in the manner of George Floyd, handcuffed with a policeman\u2019s knee to the back of his neck.

Do your part. Let everyone know what happened Angelo Quinto. What\u2019s the reaction? Did they know? Do they care?

We should all care.

What happens to Angelo Quinto\u2019s case is the true test of the value of being Filipino in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

EMIL GUILLERMO<\/strong> is a journalist and commentator who writes on race, culture and politics.\u00a0 A former columnist for the Star-Bulletin, and an editorial board member of the Advertiser, Emil was also a host of NPR\u2019s \u201cAll Things Considered,\u201d in Washington, DC. See his vlog at <\/em>www.amok.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Related Stories:
<\/em><\/strong>For Black History Month, Remember David Fagen<\/a>
<\/em><\/strong>Filipino Exposes White Supremacy in SF as Things Start Changing in the Wake of George Floyd<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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