Good morning. Today is Monday. Today we’re going to look at yesterday’s cover story in the Metropolitan section: the story of Tin Chin and Mo Lin, The Chinese-speaking immigrants met at a homeless shelter in Brooklyn and became inseparable.
We’ll also look at an article by my fellow Metro reporter Ali Watkins about how a shooting in Harlem highlights the deadly threat of illegal firearms in the city, in the face of a growing likelihood gun ownership following a Supreme Court decision last month.
Sam Dolnick is deputy editor at The Times. But he started the newspaper as a Metro reporter. He recently went back to the source of that report by following a tip and coming up with a New York story about friendship overcoming hardship.
First, it was Tin Chin, once a family man with a good job as an immigration officer. But by 2012 – after being sentenced to prison for conspiring to scam Chinese immigrants with their savings – he was living in a homeless shelter in Brooklyn, where he met Mo. Lin, an undocumented immigrant, is in poor health and does not speak English.
The two middle-aged men passed the day by eating cheaply in Manhattan’s Chinatown and visiting popular spots like Coney Island, Central Park, and the Bronx Zoo. After Mr. Lin was beaten in 2014, Mr. Chin drew on his experience as an immigration officer to help him obtain a special visa. The story has many problems – you can read them for yourself – when friendships stretch into a coronavirus pandemic.
I asked Sam to discuss the story. (Don’t worry, he didn’t give the ending.)
This feels like such a hidden story. How did you find it?
An unsolicited note to The Times, in five sentences, asks us to write about a man named Mo Lin, a homeless immigrant from Chinatown. So I set out to learn about Mo’s life, and it unfolded a much richer story than I had anticipated.
This is probably primarily a story of a friendship, a friendship forged on the outskirts of the city. Is there something about that world that piqued your interest?
Sure. Much of this story takes place in homeless shelters, church basements, and other basic areas of the city. But if we’re being honest, they’re parts of the city that we don’t normally approach in a human way. We write about government regulations, homeless enforcement, immigration rules, but we don’t often write about the human experience.
Mr. Chin has a troubled background. Was he initially willing to fully cooperate with this story?
I spent a lot of time on Tin from the very beginning. He realized I was interested in Mo, and he wanted Mo’s story to be told. When I started emphasizing Tin’s story, he opened up.
Did your experience as a Metro reporter help inform how you viewed this story?
Deep. I spent many years reporting on New York City. I love New York. I live here. I am fascinated by it, especially the areas of the city that I cannot explore in my daily life. Being a reporter gives you a passport into the city. To write this story, you had to dig through the court records and a lot of the reports that you learned in the process.
Many people view New York as the Fun City, a lavish place for the rich, influential and famous. However, this story is about two men at the bottom of society, whose lives unnoticed exist almost as shadows. I wonder why we hear so little about people like this.
These people are not powerful in the sense that we think of power. They could hardly be further from it. What we usually think of as news is often related to power, and what interests me here is the large gap in between. One thing that excites me about Dream and Tin is that they are really close friends who depend on each other. It made me think about my own friendships, and I hope people can relate to that.
Talk about the narrative decisions that lead to the cinematic feel of this story, giving the reader hints of what’s to come while letting the events unfold on their own.
I wanted to tell the story with a bit of mystery and suspense because in some ways, that’s how they came through. Mo, for quite some time, did not know Tin’s full story. I want to create the same feeling.
You oversee The Times’ audio, film and television reporting and other digital projects. You helped launch the podcast “The Daily”. Will readers be able to continue reading longer, more in-depth stories like this?
It was an incredibly invigorating moment in journalism. We can tell all kinds of different stories in all different ways. A generation ago, it would have been hard to imagine a newspaper taking the story of two homeless men as credible, and I think it’s interesting that the definition of trustworthiness is expanding right now. before our eyes.
Weather
It was a sunny day near the mid 80’s. At night it was clear with temperatures around 70.
PARKING OUTSIDE
Suspended today (Eid al-Adha).
Latest Metro News
Thirteen guns were used in a shooting in Harlem, highlighting a deadly threat.
My colleague Ali Watkins reported a disturbing development in a fatal shooting that caused shockwaves at a Father’s Day barbecue in Harlem last month that left a college basketball star dead.
Police determined that perhaps 13 guns were used in a wild shootout, and 53 shots were fired – a brazen display of violence as New York prepares for what could be an uptick. gun possession after a Decision of the Supreme Court last month overturned a law that makes it difficult to legally own or carry a handgun.
Soon, officers may not only have to determine if someone is carrying a gun, but also whether the weapon is legal.
The shooting killed 21-year-old Darius Lee, a native of Harlem and a popular player for the Houston Baptist University basketball team.
The Police Department does not keep figures on the number of illegal firearms it believes are in the city, but officers typically estimate the number at around one million.
Police Commissioner, Keechant Sewell, said last week that the department in the past six months has taken more than 3,700 illegal firearms off our streets.
METROPOLITAN . Diary
Christmas Mission
Dear Diary:
It was Christmas in the 1970s. My sister and I, teenagers living in upstate New Jersey, were on a mission to find a special gift for our mother.
We took the Public Service bus to the Port Authority and departed from there. Hours of shopping yielded nothing, possibly because our budget was extremely limited.
Our last stop is Bergdorf’s. It was dusk. The store is sparkling and filled with elegant shoppers. Obviously we don’t fit. My sister wears overalls; I’m wearing an antique duffel coat.
However, we were determined. And there, in the shoe department, we found it: an elegant clutch in thick black fabric with a simple silver clasp. It was perfect. It’s even on sale!
We have calculated carefully. We only had enough to buy and pay for the ticket home. Then a terrible realization: We forgot about sales tax. We cannot buy.
Across the bustling office, a salesman with silver hair and a trimmed mustache seemed to be watching our tense discussion unfold. He walked over to us.
“Can I help you, ma’am?” he asked, speaking to us as if we were rich wives.
We have explained the problem. After taking care of us thoughtfully, he suggested something we had never heard of.
“Perhaps you could have shipped the bag to your home in New Jersey?” he say. “Then you won’t have to pay taxes.”
Amazed, then delighted! He smiled as we tried to express our thanks.
The clutch arrived on time, and our mom loved it. It has become a part of many special occasions in her life. After she passed away at the age of 95, we found it among her belongings in perfect shape. My sister uses it now for special occasions.
– Pat Steenland
Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and Read more Metropolitan Diary here.
So glad we can get together here. James Barron will be back tomorrow. – CK
PS This is for today Small crosswords and Spell Bee. You can find all our quizzes here.
Melissa Guerrero and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at [email protected].
