20/20 Downtown: Fighting Prostitution
Sept. 25 -- Night after night, 46-year-old Douglas Chin says he would fall asleep to the sounds of pimps, johns and prostitutes. And the following morning, he would wake up to a doorstep littered with condoms.
Feeling that his neighborhood was being besieged by prostitution and that authorities were not responding, Chin, an electrical engineer who lives in San Francisco’s Mission District, decided to take matters into his own hands.
“I was at war,” says Chin. “I did want to let the johns know that someone was out there fighting.”
Breaking the Law
At 2 a.m. one foggy night this past March, cops were patrolling the streets when a piece of metal came crashing down on the rear window of a car.
Police then found Chin on the roof of a Russian church dressed in all black and wearing a ski mask. In his hand was a piece of rebar steel — at least eight inches long and weighing nearly a pound.
“I didn’t want to hurt anyone at all — not even the pimps and the prostitutes,” says Chin, who was hurling the pieces of metal onto cars that sought out streetwalkers. “All I wanted to do was let the johns know that they were not welcomed in this neighborhood.”
Chin, who says he used his background in engineering to calculate that rebar falling 40 feet from the rooftop would not injure anyone inside a car, had no previous criminal record. He was arrested and charged with four felony counts. After four months in jail — Chin refused to post bail — he was found guilty only of four misdemeanor counts of assault and throwing objects at moving cars.
A Hero’s Welcome
Despite his criminal actions, many in the community gave him a hero’s welcome upon his release.
“To me he’s a hero,” says one woman. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to have met this person and thank you for having the courage that you had.”
Other residents say that the area has improved since Chin’s actions brought attention to the community’s problems. Many say that police have pumped up their presence on foot, bicycle and even horseback.
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