A rush of "true" activism on the part of three casual friends culminated in a trendy benefit last night on the Lower East Side to raise money for the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) and to honor Connie Coleman, an Asian American woman who was beaten nearly to death in an up-scale Queens restaurant in January.

Coleman was the star of the event, and graciously chatted with all of her supporters before taking the mic and telling the story of how she was publicly discriminated and physically beaten in Caffe on the Greene in Bayside Queens.

Her story had attracted the attention of Chinese language newspapers and Councilman John Liu of Flushing, however the case was not immediately considered a bias crime despite the situation and received virtually no coverage from the mainstream media.

After pushes from the Councilman's office and through an e-mail sent out by her niece, Valerie Neng, Coleman finally heard from the NYPD and was called to the precinct to identify her assailants in a line-up.

Meanwhile, Neng's e-mail was passed on throughout the Asian American community until it was eventually dropped into the inboxes of Sam Quan Kruger, Milly Lee and Seth Appel. The three friends decided to take action, deciding that a benefit in Mrs. Coleman's honor was the best way to go.

The proceeds of the benefit went to AALDEF, a non-profit legal organization that provided consultation to Asian Americans who suffer from hate crimes, discrimination, and immigration laws among other things. AALDEF has also worked with Coleman on her case.

On Jan. 3, Mrs. Coleman was eating at Caffe on the Greene with two of her sisters and a friend when the family at the next table allegedly began shouting racially charged insults like "Gook," and "Chink," at them.

She said that the family was unhappy with the way she and her companions were speaking in Chinese, and proceeded to get drunk and become more vocal about their displeasure.

"From the way they looked, you would never guess [that] they would do that," Coleman said.

After Coleman's family and friends left the restaurant and she started to leave as well, she said a glass was thrown at her face, she was pinned to the floor and suffered blows to her face.

Coleman said that no one at the restaurant bothered to help her, and only handed her a business card and shrugged their shoulders as an indication that there was nothing they would do.

After going to the hospital and filing a police report, Chinese language newspapers picked up her story immediately, but it wasn't until three months later when she identified her assailants as part of the Gambino crime family that mainstream newspapers covered her story.

As of last night, Coleman still suffers from pains in her neck and back.

Sin Yen Ling, an attorney who handles many of the Hate Crime cases that are reported to AALDEF, said that these types of hate crimes are not rare and are often outrageous.

The organization has dealt with several high-profile cases such as when students were attacked at SUNY Bingamton, SUNY Buffalo, and at a Denny's restaurant.

Ling said that while racism existed prior to Sept. 11, 2001, it has noticeably increased since then and backlash has affected many South Asians, Arabs and Muslim Americans as well as East Asians.

She said that many hate crimes are a direct response from current international events, but Connie Coleman's husband doesn't think that this was the case. He believes that the assailants were acting purely out of ignorance.

All parties agreed that Liu's influence had a big part in resolving the Colemans' case.

"The reason it steamrolled was because she has support of John Liu," Ling said. "For a councilman to recognized a race-based issue is a big thing. That made the difference."

Coleman said that at first, she was prepared to remain silent about what happened at the restaurant, but she could only keep it in for so long.

"As I lay on the hospital bed, I realized I could not keep quiet," she said. Coleman had seen many Chinese Americans suffer discrimination since her arrival in America in 1969, and as long as hate crimes will go on she wants to actively combat it.

In her speech, Coleman urged everyone in the room to try and move their peers to think toward the future and register to vote, so that more of the "right" people, like Councilman Liu, could be voted into office.