A Woman Kidnapped from Her Home
A Chinese immigrant couple is torn apart as conspirators use a bogus larceny charge and a U.S. Marshal to traffic a woman into potential enslavement.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Lee Wing, a prosperous Chinese man living in Portland with his wife, Ah Toy (also known as Fue Gran), was left devastated Sunday when his wife was forcibly taken from their home at First and Pine Streets. A white man claiming to be an officer and a man named Ah Luie forced the woman into a carriage and transported her to a train destined for Seattle. The captors claimed the woman was wanted in Seattle for larceny—a charge her husband and police officials believe is a complete fabrication. Upon arrival in Seattle, the woman was detained in the county jail. Investigations revealed that the kidnappers were attempting to bypass legal protocols to send her to British Columbia. Police in Portland have expressed high indignation over this 'high-handed outrage' and the misuse of the U.S. Marshals to facilitate what appears to be a trafficking scheme. The woman remains in custody while authorities scramble to prevent her deportation.
“A high-handed outrage has been perpetrated with unusual boldness, and they propose to punish the offenders.”
This 1893 incident exposes the routine weaponization of 'law enforcement' against Chinese immigrants in the Pacific Northwest. It highlights the brutal intersection of legal systemic racism—using the machinery of the state to enforce deportations or slavery—and the efforts of community members to seek justice against those abuses.
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