New York, July 29, 2004
Ashok Aggasrwal
New York Police Department arrested one man a day after the brutal
July 11 attack and arrested four more men this week.They allegedly beat
the turban-wearing Rajinder Singh Khalsa Ji unconscious outside of a
Richmond Hill catering hall. There's a place for such offenders - prison
- and they could end up there for four years because of sentencing guidelines
that are tougher on bias attacks.
A recent report from the city Commission on Human Rights that 69 percent
of the city's Muslims, Arabs and South Asians believed they had been
victims of discrimination or bias harassment. What's saddening is that
many of them didn't report the incidents out of fear or worry that nothing
would be done.
The best approach is for it to pursue bias crimes at least as vigorously
as it would any offense, whether the victims are black, gay or turbaned.