Tou Ger Xiong, a Hmong professional comedian and an activist with the Coalition for Community Relations in Minneapolis, attests to the skill of Hmong farmers in the burgeoning industry of cannabis production.
“We can grow anything in any conditions—we’ve been practicing farming for thousands of years,” says Xiong, who recently visited California’s far-north Siskiyou County, where Hmong immigrants from Laos have been getting in on the cannabis economy.
“He was in his car running from a wildfire with his wife and three kids behind him so why did he end up dead?”
Despite cannabis being technically “legal” in California since 2016, efforts to eradicate unlicensed plots continue; in Siskiyou, all outdoor cultivation is banned by county ordinance. Local Hmong charge that they are the targets of discriminatory enforcement.
Tensions between the Hmong and law enforcement reached a grim climax on June 28, when Soobleej Kaub Hawj, a thirty-five-year-old Hmong man, was killed by police during the evacuation of local communities due to the devastating Lava Fire, which has destroyed many homes in the county.
The Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that officers shot and killed Hawj during evacuation of the Mount Shasta Vista Subdivision, southeast of Yreka—an area notorious for unlicensed cannabis plots and crackdowns by county authorities.
According to the Sheriff’s statement, officers assisting in the evacuation stopped a pickup truck that was traveling toward the intersection where firefighters had established a staging area. Officers directed the driver (later identified as Hawj) to turn north, away from the evacuation zone. According to the statement, Hawj ignored those directions and instead turned southbound.
“While the law enforcement officer was communicating with the driver, the driver raised his hand and pointed a semi-auto handgun at the officers,” the Sheriff's Office said.
“Fire personnel quickly administered medical aid to the driver of the vehicle; however, he did not recover, and was pronounced dead at the scene,” the statement concluded.
A protest vigil was held in mid-July. “We are right now facing racism against our community,” said Paula Yang, a Hmong activist who drove up from Fresno, California, to take part in the protest. She called for an independent investigation.
At the rally, an attorney for the Hmong announced a federal lawsuit against the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office and California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection—claiming that they violated Hawj’s constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, and protection from unlawful search and seizure.
Protesters have contested the official version of events. “He was in his car running from a wildfire with his wife and three kids behind him so why did he end up dead?” Xiong told the press.
Authorities have also seemingly dropped claims that Hawj fired first—or even shot at all. “Based upon preliminary information, it appears that there might have been a couple rounds fired from the suspect’s firearm,” Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue initially told the Sacramento Bee, a claim that has not been repeated.
Hmong activist Zurg Xiong launched a public hunger strike on the steps of the Yreka courthouse to demand that the investigation into Hawj’s shooting be taken out of the hands of local authorities. He broke his fast after 19 days on July 23, when California Attorney General Rob Bonta agreed to consider an investigation into the killing.
But District Attorney Andrus is insisting on pursuing his own investigation.
Reached by email, Andrus told this reporter: “My investigators are leading an investigation into possible criminal conduct by the officers. The other investigators come from agencies not involved in the shooting. This is the primary investigation into the event.”
Four officers were apparently involved in the shooting: one from the Sheriff’s Office, two from the local police department in the town of Etna, and one from the California Department of Fish & Wildlife. Andrus said, “I have not released the names of the involved officers and will not do so until my findings are made public.” He did not make clear whether the four officers are still on duty.
Andrus did say that a “firearm was recovered from inside the vehicle of the decedent.” Asked if Hawj got a shot off, he said: “This information will be released when I make a public report of the incident. Until the investigation is complete and I determine whether any officer should face criminal charges I cannot ethically release this information.”
A primary source of tension in Siskiyou County, Tou Ger Xiong says, is “racist ordinances and policies targeting the water supply of Hmong families.” For instance, “water for basic needs like showering and cooking is being denied.”
In May, the county passed an emergency ordinance that both prohibited water trucks from delivering to specific areas and barred the use of pumped groundwater in off-parcel plots. It is portrayed as a response to unlicensed cannabis growing and the long drought in the region. But activists charge it is specifically targeting Hmong communities.
Legal challenges to the ordinance are pending. On August 6, U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller in Sacramento ordered Hmong litigants and the county to enter into mediation to “ensure people living in the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision have water to meet their basic needs while the court considers the pending motion for a preliminary injunction.”
On July 20, U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, Republican of California, posted videos to YouTube showing himself at the controls of a bulldozer, joining with Siskiyou deputies to demolish an unlicensed cannabis greenhouse. In his patter to the camera, LaMalfa said, “I love the smell of diesel power in the afternoon. It smells like victory,” referencing the “napalm in the morning” quote from the Vietnam War movie Apocalypse Now.
LaMalfa’s accompanying press release included possibly legitimate charges about pesticide abuse by cannabis growers, and claims that “organized crime” is behind the “illegal pot-growing operations.”
Tou Ger Xiong has little patience for such talk.
“People have been growing cannabis there for decades,” he says. “Now Hmong start growing, and they say they are bringing gangs and crime into the community. Targeting a specific ethnic group is mean-spirited.”