Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Liu recalls his sweatshop childhood


From the Daily News:

City Councilman John Liu is playing the immigrant card in a new biographical video he's launching on the Web.

"When I was 7, I got my first job working in [a] garment factory, and I learned firsthand why they called the place a 'sweatshop,'" Liu says. "I like to say I was taught in public school, but I was educated in a sweatshop."

Interspersed with anecdotes from his supporters and highlights of his career are bits of Liu's life story: A childhood memory of having kids stare him down and spit in his face, his anger at a lawmaker's tirade denouncing Asians as "illegal aliens" and "criminal smugglers."

"I know what discrimination feels like - and I don't want anyone else to feel it," Liu says. "This city makes a promise with us: It doesn't matter where you or your parents came from. What matters is how far you want to go."

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

His father is a bank robber and his mother put him to work at 7. Some parents!

He was taught about breaking the law at an early age. Seven years old and working in a sweat shop? There are laws against child labor in this country.

What an asshole!

Anonymous said...

agree with the comment about his parents and no longer this guy is such an asshole. He is vile SNEAKY person. He introduce bills for money and he supports horse cruelty and human beatings of falun gong members. He is an asshole!

Anonymous said...

"illegal aliens" and "criminal smugglers". YES, it was in all the papers....stories about the Golden Venture, the ship carrying hundreds of "illegal aliens" that washed up on the beach in Rockaway. I believe the "criminal smuggler" in this case was Big Sister Ping.

The truth hurts. Get over it.

Anonymous said...

I bet that sweat shop was illegal.

georgetheatheist said...

Yo, Loo-ey. Gettin' a face fulla phlegm is a normal Noo Yawk ting. Ya big wussie.

Accchhh...patooey!

Alan said...

Let us not forget this moment at a CB#7 College Point Corporate Park task force meeting where he had to bring up the racial issue, even though it was not called for:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktDOS9DXlvQ

Anonymous said...

Liu knows his local history. Back in the 1920s, Al Smith recalled getting his education at the old Fulton Fish Market.

Anonymous said...

he wants to be comptroller so his uncle can fxxk this city some more. corrupt parents and uncle. don't vote this man or katz in office. this city sucks!

Anonymous said...

re:john c. liu,see queenscrap"rezoning auburndale"aug 5,2009..comment#3...."childcare in a deep whole for all ethnic children?

Anonymous said...

A crocodile tear jerker from Tommy Huang's cousin!

In lieu of a qualified representative Flushing got Liu instead.

Why not call up Alice Liu Huang (the notorious Tommy's wife) and see what other sob stories she can come up with regarding cousin Johnny's early life!

And this lying SOB son of a bank robber wants to be comptroller of NYC?

Vote the bastard out into political oblivion!

Anonymous said...

Yuck, yuck, yuck...a 7 year old Chinese coolie forced to work in a sweat shop. That's a real good one.

And did he complete his apprenticeship in a hand laundry...
"No ticky...no shirty"?

It's sounds like it came right out of Charles Dickens...
"Little Johnny Copperfield"!

Anonymous said...

i think liu should give us all more details about this "sweatshop" his family worked in. maybe it's still happening. where was it? who was running it? what was it producing? personally, i'd like to know if there are sweatshops operating in the community. let's shut them down. tell us all about the sweatshops.

if it doesn't matter where you came from then why does liu keep bringing it up. seems like he's the one playing the race card whenever it's convenient for him.

at a civic meeting a while ago a neighbor of mine was once commenting on a public school zoning issue and liu tried to turn it into a racial issue. in front of the entire audience, the person then asked liu how he had voted on the 18.5% 2002 NYC property tax increase. when liu answered that he had voted 'for' it, the whole audience gasped.

a month later this person received a letter from the social security administration in flushing stating that they had made a calculation error from back in the 70s and that unless he was able to provide a W2 on his salary from 30 years ago his monthly benefit would be reduced.

does anyone believe that the SSA is combing through their records for discrepancies? are records from that long ago even digitized or would someone have had to manually audit it? SSA just happened to have chosen his highest earning year.

fortunately this person had kept records and fought it. SSA had no evidence for the miscalculation and the case was dismissed.

while there's no proof that liu used the SSA to silence an outspoken member of our community who disagreed with him, was this quid pro quo or a coincidence? i wish there were a way to find out for sure. seems fishy to me and if it happened once i'm sure it's happened before.

Alan said...

If you want a good example of how not to be a city councilperson, check out the following videos. In the first video I demonstrate how the supermarket on Union Street has closed off several street side doors because they are accessible from inside the store (with the exception of 29-16 Union Street which is entirely independent). I voiced 2 concerns. Firstly, I feel that this is dangerous in case of a problem since emergency responders would not be able to access certain areas from the street side where the fire hydrant is located. Secondly, the video demonstrates how it makes shopping more difficult because the store fronts are closed off. This gives me the impression that the supermarket is appealing to out of the area customers over the neighborhood street traffic. The store at 29-16 does not even pretend since the only entrance is in the rear.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCfoywQPF_A


I expressed these concerns at a Mitchell-Linden Civic Association meeting and was made to feel that my concerns did not have validity, especially by Councilman Liu. If you visit this Union Street shopping strip, you will see that nothing has changed even though a city commissioner and others have indicated that they would look into the matter. Here is a brief clip from that meeting:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA8aHNmFQeg

Still want Liu to be NYC's Comptroller??? I have seen my neighborhood overdeveloped and overcrowded since Liu has been in office and other than campaign literature, My neighbors and I have never received updates or progress reports from his office so we feel that we are being kept in the dark. Bring back Julia Harrison!

maybe I'm a former Stavisky staffer said...

With Johnny's Liu/Huang family "pedigree" I wouldn't trust that shifty eyed comptroller wannabee for shit!

He's most likely hooked up with the Chinese gang/tongs!

Ask the Staviskys about it!
I'm sure they know all.

The late State Senator Leonard was always railing publicly against Tommy Huang but I'll bet that family was hooked up good too!

And where did C.M. Liu get those millions of dollars in so short a time?

Laundered loot From immigrant smuggling operations i.e. "Golden Venture" and so on?

inside the fold said...

Maybe somebody ought to ask Susie (Auntie WU) Rathbone about the Huang/Liu family ties (or Augustine Chen if he's still around).

You gettin' all this...you federal government blog scopers?

Then go out and do your jobs!

Anonymous said...

99% of your clothes on your back come from sweatshops aboard or in the East Coast unfortunately.Why has that been allowed for 30 years plus?

Anonymous said...

@anonymous: this is a blog about queens.

i call upon our councilman who has firsthand knowledge of these sweatshops to investigate and close them down. surely his constituency would agree that this is an outrage.

Anonymous said...

John Liu is a liar and a cheat and not to be trusted.

Anonymous said...

WOW!!! Breaking news! Toby Ann Stavisky in not on the "Full List of Endorsements" at Liunewyork.com.

Parting of ways? Or because Stavisky is under investigation?

Anonymous said...

I guess little Joey is working in the sweat shops just like daddy.

Flushing Friend said...

If Liu is the best that the Asian community has to offer, heaven help us! All the other Asian politicians have not done enough outreach to the non-Asian community...because they feel that they do not need to??? What's going to be happening in a decade?