Victim of hate crime. Chin was visiting a Detroit strip club with a few friends to celebrate his upcoming wedding. Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, two Caucasian auto workers, mistaking him for a Japanese, taunt him, and blame him for the problems in the US auto industry. Outside the bar, the auto workers retrieve a baseball bat and use it to beat him over the head. Chin goes into a coma and dies a few days later. The attackers are sentenced to just three years of probation and a $3,000 fine. Outraged by the lightness of the sentence, the Asian-American community of Detroit form the American Citizens for Justice (ACJ), which would continue the fight at the federal level. Initially, the ACJ was partly successful. Ebens is found guilty of violating Chin's civil rights while Nitz is found not guilty. Unfortunately, the conviction is overturned on a technicality and both men are found not guilty on a retrial. Although justice was not served in the case, the Chin murder was instrumental in mobilizing the Asian American community against hate crimes.