In unfortunate news, particularly since it comes on the four year anniversary of 9/11, a NYC fire-fighter was arrested for a possible hate crime against a Bangladeshi immigrant. CNN reports:
Hours after many New York firefighters gathered to mark the fourth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a firefighter was arrested for attacking an immigrant worker and telling him he looked “like he’s al-Qaeda,” police said.Firefighter Edward Dailey was arrested Sunday afternoon on charges of criminal mischief and felony second-degree assault, Police Sgt. Kevin Farrell said. It had not yet been determined whether the charges would be upgraded to a hate crime, he said.
Dailey, 27, is accused of breaking a piece of Plexiglas off a curbside news stand and throwing it at a 51-year-old man who works there, Farrell said. Dailey had said the man, an immigrant from Bangladesh, looked “like he’s al-Qaeda,” Farrell said.
So discouraging to hear this type of thing happen at all, but even worse on the anniversary. I’m sure they’ll be a case made make a case for PTSD. Newsday.com has more:
Dailey, who lives on Long Island and works in Jamaica, Queens, was valedictorian of his Fire Academy class last year, according to the Daily News.The arrest came on a day when many New York firefighters gathered to mark the fourth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center. Police said Dailey had been drinking after attending the memorial service for a fallen firefighter he had known from their previous jobs as emergency medical workers.
<
p>In related news, filmmakers Valarie Kaur, who blogs at DNSI, and Sharat Raju have a trailer of their upcoming film titled “Divided we Fall.”
A turbaned Sikh man was murdered four days after Sept. 11, 2001 by a man bent on eliminating anyone “Arab-looking.” He screamed: “I am a patriot!” Similar stories of hate crimes swept across the nation in the aftermath.Armed with only a camera and a question, an American college student journeyed into the heart of a suffering nation in search of answers. She met people, some born and raised in America, others who came seeking a better life and adopted a new land as their own home. All believed in the American dream. Captured on film are their stories — hundreds of them. Stories of sadness. Of unimaginable loss & fear. Of hope, resilience & love.
Two filmmakers. One camera. 14 American cities. Four months on the road. 100 hours of footage. And the question: WHY?
What part of “You look like Al-Qaeda” is NOT ethnic intimidation?
I say throw the book at him — and coat it in Plexiglas, just for ironic effect.
Also even the PTSD excuse would be weak since he just graduated from the academy last year. He wasn’t a firefighter on 9/11.
Article from this week’s Asian Voice, a UK-based newspaper.
(page 14)
Hindus and Sikhs more vulnerable than Muslims due to 7/7 backlash
Leaders of the Hindu Forum of Britain expressed deep concern and anxiety to the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Tarique Ghaffour on 6th September 2005 about the increased vulnerability of their community to faith hate crime. Figures released by the Metropolitan Police revealed that from 7th July 2005 until 10th August there were 932 instances of faith hate crime against Indians (predominantly Hindus and Sikhs) as opposed to approximately 600 instances of faith hate crime against Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims.
“In June there were only three instances of faith hate crime against Hindus and Sikhs,” said Ramesh Kallidai, secretary general of the Hindu Forum of Britain at the special meeting organised by the Hindu Forum and the Metropolitan Police Hindu Association. “This means that there has been a 3100% increase in hate crime against Hindus and Sikhs after 7/7. There are more Hindu and Sikh victims of hate crime in the capital than Muslims.”
Hindu leaders felt that most of the instances of hate crime against the community were perpetrated through mistaken identity during the backlash after 7/7.
“As Asians we all look the same, and are equally vulnerable to any backlash,” continued Ramesh Kallidai. “However, our greatest concern is that there is no official recognition that Hindus and Sikhs are more vulnerable than the Muslim community. Even worse is the fact that there has been very low levels of Government engagement with our communities to understand what effect such high levels of hate crime is having in our confidence in the Criminal Justice System. Very little effort is being made to help our community to increase levels of hate crime reporting and offering voluntary support to victims of hate crime.”
CB Patel, publisher of Asian Voice and Chair of HFB added “We are very happy that the assistant commissioner is meeting with the Hindu community to understand our problems. However, we fail to understand why the Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has not taken the time out to engate with our community despite the fact that we are the most vulnerable in terms of hate crime. Such indifference to our community is not going to increase community confidence at a time when we need to be reassured about our safety and security.”
“Even though the level of hate crime against our community has increased so dramatically, there have been very few prosecutions,” claimed Arjan Vekaria, Chair of the Hindu Forum Security Committee. “We have now urgently requested the Met Police to convene a meeting to discuss their strategy for addressing hate crime against our community.”
The Hindu Forum of Britain had invited over 25 organisations to the meeting with the Assistant Commissioner, and mostof them voiced similar concerns regarding a lack of community engagement and availability of community infrastructure to reduce hate crime.
Hope he gets the maximum sentence, so as to send a warning to other assholes like him who would want to do something similar.
They’ll? come on now….
Bad editing on my part. Should read: “I’m sure they’ll make a case for PTSD.” My power went out before I could properly edit. 🙂
Slap on the wrist, that’s my prediction. NY had more reason that most other places for a massive firefighter love-in, but it still means that this guy will do community service or something, at the very most. They’ve already dropped the hate crime charge and released him without bail.
Ech..call me jaded, but after seeing a stream of cops walk out of court “innocent of all charges” after shooting unarmed people….
NYPD valedictorian..nice touch.
A 27 year old attacking a 51 year old……very coward.
No Jai Singh put that back on the I’m Sikh don’t freak thread please. I notice no people of Hispanic/Spanish/South European descent have jumped on the bandwagon yet, only a matter of time.
Faith Hate Offences – Faith Hate offences remain at an elevated level when compared to the previous year’s figures for the same period, however the substantial rise seen in the weeks since the 7th of July has reduced considerably and the levels may have now stabilised. Since the 7th of July, the total number of Faith Hate offences is 343% higher than during the same period last year (an additional 360 offences). Currently on average there are slightly less than 3 additional offences of Faith hate per day.
Uncleji’s Niece,
I do hope you’re right — are these figures for the UK or for the US ?
Someone should definitely castrate any 27 year old who attacks a 51 year old unless he’s a bigot of some sort. I must say tho even after 9/11 i didn’t get too much shit for being indian, maybe cause i hang out with a number of white folk…either way i was in Paris a week after the 7/7 attacks, i’ve grown accustomed to getting dirty looks and stuff (when travelling in the midwest and south, god damn texans), but was surprised that i got racially profiled like MAAD. I mean i’m a kid whose whose purposely looking like a tourist, sunglasses, camera, ipod, everything minus the fanny pack…but among the 1000 tourists at the eiffel tower, guess who is followed around by armed guards…thats right! the american kid wearing a Arsenal jersey with maps of the parisian metro! Either way, i thought it was hilarious and ran circles around all the guards to see how confused they got…we actually got some great shots of the guards looking for me when i disappeared behind a tree and waited a minute before coming out the other side…i would post them but some lazy ass parisian pickpocket stole my friends camera