Something is Rotten in the City of Alhambra...

This story originating in the city of Alhambra, California, back in 2007 had all the components of a modern day mystery thriller: a fiery blaze, a mysterious death, an eerie videotape, a government cover up, and a protagonist who had uncovered the truth only to be hounded by his own department. Though we rarely find so much drama outside of the movie theater, this was the exact situation that Ken Toh, a veteran fire protection specialist with the Alhambra Fire Department found himself entrapped in.
In the aftermath of the massive blaze of a Chinese strip mall that occurred on July 16th, 2007, the Alhambra Fire Department dispatched Toh to investigate the cause of the fire since he was the only individual in the department who could speak Cantonese and Mandarin. It is truly surprising to note that given Alhambra's 52.9% Asian demographic there was only ONE individual in the whole department capable of communicating with such a large portion of the community-but this is just the beginning of all the strangeness that follows.
Without performing a thorough investigation of the incident to determine the actual cause of the blaze, Fire Chief John Kabala hastily proclaimed to the media that the fire had been caused by an electrical fault in the Happy Bakery located on the eastern portion of the mall. What Kabala obviously failed to see was what Toh discovered to be the dead body of Charlie Lee, the owner of a frame store located all the way on the opposite end of the same strip mall. But it seemed Kabala had made up his mind, and so an electrical fire was an electrical fire despite the evidence that Toh had further amassed in security camera footage and witness testimony that pointed to an entirely different conclusion.

"Ken Toh and Mike Hatzbanian found security tapes of the dead man entering the building. The Alhambra Fire Department said it wasn't interested"- from LA Weekly

So what happens next? The Alhambra Fire Department instead of investigating the death of Lee, began a full-blown investigation of Toh, using surveillance techniques such as having a friend wear a wire to record Toh without his knowledge (Despite how illegal this may seem, apparently under CA law, investigation officers are allowed to record individuals without his or her prior knowledge).The fire department ultimately fired Toh after it had placed him on paid absence (they subsequently interrogated other people in the department and also fired them for being unwilling to testify against Toh in court- if this whole deal doesn't seem absurd enough, it gets worse). Toh was later prosecuted by the DA who ironically implicated him in the cover up of the fire, accusing him of being in cahoots with the strip mall owner Peter Fong to help Fong avoid a civil lawsuit for having faulty wiring by claiming it was arson. In the end the jurors saw how tenuous the prosecution's argument was and Toh was not convicted. However, Toh is still unable to find employment due to how badly the department has tarnished his name despite his fight for justice in the community (the Monterey Park Fire Depart balked at hiring a private company because it was later told that Toh would be the one doing the work!)  The mysterious death of Charlie Lee has yet to be fully investigated either.

However, in looking into the events of this case one has wonder why the Alhambra Fire Department spent such a large effort on silencing Toh. Toh, himself suggests that the fire department's aggression was flamed by the fact that he was Chinese. He also points out the Kabala was not an individual who respected diversity or was even remotely culturally sensitive- he referred to Asians in general as "Chinamen" and Koh, himself, was called "Broken Toe(h)" (the word "broken" has such a powerfully negative connotation in the Asian culture- something that Kabala did not seem to care much for). It seems that this whole court circus has been a smokescreen to hide the fact that the Alhambra Fire Department had turned a blind eye to the happenings in Asian American community. Because when it comes down to the bottom line, Toh did nothing criminal and furthermore went out of his way to uncover the truth, and for his efforts the Alhambra Fire Department harassed, investigated, threatened, fired, prosecuted, and persecuted Toh to maintain their own hollow public image. It was also later discovered that there was much more at stake for Kabala than his reputation in the fire department- he was most afraid that his growing name in the forensics industry, which he planned to enter after his retirement from the department, would be tarnished if he admitted his mistakes about the strip mall blaze (I don't see how his credentials are faring much better after this fiasco- but sadly I am quite sure that he will land a job before Toh does). Toh's case is a clear example of how racism still rears its damned ugly head in the modern world. We may be past the era of "colored only" signs on storefronts, but in reality racism has only become more insidious and hidden. Community support and organization has never been more important in the purpose of protesting injustices and defeating underlying prejudices of American society. For the full and story surrounding the corrupt race politics of the Alhambra Fire Department, go here (LA Weekly). Hopefully, there will be justice for Toh in the near future!