I have had a fever for most of the day, so when I woke up and checked my GMail, I thought I was hallucinating while reading something sent out via ASATA (Alliance of South Asians Taking Action). SALDEF (The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund) just issued a press release regarding an incident which makes me sick; Kuldip Singh Nag, a Sikh American VETERAN was assaulted by the Joliet police, in front of his six-year old child and wife. His crime? Parking a van with expired tags in his driveway. What. The. Fuck.
I can’t find anything beyond a useless mention of Nag’s arrest on a “police blotter” type of article, so if any of you know of further developments, please let us know. The following is from SALDEF:
On Friday March 30, 2007 at around 3:00pm, Mr. Kuldip Singh Nag, a Sikh American who was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in the U.S. Navy during the first Gulf War, was at his home in Joliet, IL when a local police officer noticed that a van parked on Mr. Nag’s private property had expired registration tags. Upon being confronted with this, Mr. Nag’s wife, Vera Kaur Nag, informed the officer that the van is parked on their driveway and was inoperable.
Mr. Nag then came outside to answer the officer’s questions regarding the van. The Joliet police officer then demanded that Mr. Nag park the van inside his garage and not on the driveway, to which Mr. Nag responded to the officer that it was not possible and that regardless, the van is parked on his private property and he has a right to park it on his driveway.
At this moment, the officer pulled out his pepper spray and attacked Mr. Nag. As Mr. Nag screamed in agony, the officer removed his baton and violently struck Mr. Nag numerous times until he fell to the ground. While the assault ensued, the officer was reported by both Mr. and Mrs. Nag as saying, “You f****** Arab! You f***** immigrant, go back to you f****** country before I kill you!â€
Mr. Nag’s wife and six year-old child both witnessed the violent assault, which resulted in Mr. Nag immediately being admitted to the hospital where he stayed for five days due to complaints of intense pain and head trauma. Mr. Nag also received numerous bruises and a serious head injury which have caused him to go blind for several minutes at a time.
I join SALDEF in calling for an immediate investigation into this brutal crime. Kuldip Singh Nag served the very nation this xenophobic police officer screamed at him to leave and while a few of you may question my emphasis on his military service, I just think it adds an extra ungrateful, deplorable angle to an incident which is already appalling.
“This case seems to be a clear incident of police misconduct in Illinois,†said SALDEF Managing Director Kavneet Singh. “We are horrified at the anti-immigrant sentiment the officer allegedly used as he violently accosted Mr. Nag, and further that his six year old son was a witness to this violent assault. We call upon both Joliet and Illinois officials to investigate this incident and for the Illinois community to stand in solidarity with Mr. Nag.â€
Illinois desis, where you at? And will there ever be a point in my lifetime when someone doesn’t tell a South Asian American to go back to where they “fucking came from”?
UPDATE [By Ennis]: I spoke to somebody at SALDEF who said that Mr. Nag’s legal counsel can indeed verify that he is a Veteran.
I think this incident should be thoroughly investigated, but I think the tone with which you bring things up makes a difference as to how people initially will view your demands for an investigation. What I mean is: this is serious, this is a decorated war vet we are talking about (has this been confirmed?), we (as a community) have great respect for the police-force and the difficult work they do, but feel this incident deserves a thorough investigation. One, because the truth matters and justice matters. Two, we can’t let one bad apple taint the good efforts of the whole police force. Three, it makes it more difficut to recruit Asians to the military and or police force, which is healthy for society as a whole.*
*I realize the last two points are not important to everyone on this board and people may not agree with the last two points, I just think you are more likely to get people to listen to you and take you seriously if you do it this way and don’t go all CAIR-like, if you see what I mean.
I’m a desi from Illinois and I AM SHOCKED that this happened. There are so many desis all over the Chicagoland area…but with all the police brutality going on, I’m sure this will get a lot of attention and be addressed. This absolutely disappoints and disgusts me.
Yes, Hema. Hence the NYPD shoutout.
Er, yes. Sorry, I didn’t notice that until after my knee-jerk post. Mea culpa.
I lived in Chicago a long time ago, but remember some racial issues popping up in Joliet back then. Didn’t the KKK parade throught the town once?
Anyway, don’t mean to distract from the main point of the post. It would be great to get more information and definitely figure out what we can to do bring attention to this.
try living in a mid-major market (you will know them by the impossibility of getting a direct flight from one to another) city…like say Richmond VA…or Grand Rapids MI…and you’ll run a significantly higher risk of running into a huge misunderstanding with an underpaid, over motivated Bar Brady like our unfortunate sikh brother here.
That’s hard to do, innit? I mean every year you hear a story about some public figure who either lied about their service or about their decorations.
How many bad apples have to fall before we realize the tree itself may be rotten?
This is fucking sick. I think it would be good to take this up with the American Gulf War Veterans Association as well. Hopefully, with the help of ASATA and SALDEF, this can at least receive enough national attention to stop (or at least…substantially alleviate….) this for ALL immigrants who have been treated this unjustly for FAR too long. I can’t believe this…I have family around there…this is so disturbing…I pray that family gets through this….
http://www.gulfwarvets.com/contact.htm
I think that was Cicero; not so far away.
this is so horrible and wrong on so many levels.
But, sadly, I know one thing for sure, this event WILL NOT make any mainstream media news. It would have made the national news if Mr. Nag was Latino, African, or even an East Asian immigrant, but because he is south asian (brown = terrorist = worthless)this horrible event won’t get any mainstream news coverage.
Do you guys think its wrong that I’m not surprised this happended?
I’m not, but not I feel bad for not being surprised or outraged. Of course, it is a horrible event no doubt and my heart goes out to the Nag Family, but hate crimes and disrepect against browns does not surprise me. Should I be angrier?
Honey, you’re the only one who can answer that…
What next? His tires were not inflated right???
There is something surreal about the picture. The green is ominous.Reminds me of some famous photographer who took strangely lit pictures of suburbia. Anyone know who i am talking about?
This is sad. It would be nice if we could believe this was an isolated incident. But the reality is that in an environment where politics is driven by fear, stories like this will continue.
As inflammatory as this may appear, this comment is not a troll: I continue to be disturbed by minorities who vote Republican. In the past few years, sections of the Republican party have brandished their racial hatred on their sleeves. Yet the party continues to attract minorities. What am I missing?
I care deeply about economic freedoms, free markets, private enterprise, low taxes and small government. But all are irrelevant in the face of racism. If we are to believe the report, Mr. Nag’s patriotic service was worth exactly nothing in this incident. Racist attitudes did not die in the US in the sixties. They just went underground. It isn’t a big stretch to guess which party attracted the largest share.
Some minority Republicans argue that policies that support growth and wealth are the solution to all problems – including those of race. Others argue that it is better to change attitudes from within. Although both of these points have some truth to them, they fail to capture the core attitude of racists: race trumps all.
I pose the following sincere questions to Republicans on this board: how do you reconcile your political goals with your minority status?
Brownie – not right now, please. It will degenerate pretty rapidly if we go off topic that much. I hear what you’re asking, but it’s not clear that this has anything to do with partisan matters. That is, there are racist cops in Democratic administrations too, and those mayors support them as well.
Somebody has to bring this up, but there seems to be a rush to judgement in this case. There is not enough info to make such quick judgement[just look at the Duke rape case].
-Would the camera in the police car have footage of the incident -Also does this cop have a record of police misconduct complaints filed against him. -Has Mr.Nag even been in trouble with the law before -Would the cop and Mr.Nag both take a lie detector test to see who is telling the truth, and if the cop really said what both Mr.Nag and Mrs Nag said, he said. -Also if you look in the background of the picture is that another police car coming to scene[would that mean the cop already called for backup]
The stereotyping of all cops, for the action of this one, by some of the posters here is weird. Since many here don’t like it when all desi or brown’s get stereotyped for the actions of few. We can’t have it both ways.
The cop I am guessing could only see the color of his skin. Mr. Nag’s service has nothing to do with the incident other than to highlight the fact that it doesn’t exclude one from being a target of racial hatred.
This infuriates me.
No doubt there are many ways to demonstrate one’s dedication or loyalty to one’s country. We could debate that. In my humble opinion, military service is one of the hardest ones – and one of the truest tests of one’s character. It just kills me that someone who defended this country abroad would be subject to physical violence and racist humiliation at home by an officer of the state. It disgusts me. It makes me sad and depressed about the possibility of ever getting past race and skin color and preconceived notions of ethnicity or nationalism. I know 9/11 changed everything. But when will its lingering effects of xenophobia end?
This is so tragic. I am stunned. I am forever harping about how friendly midwesterners are and then some asshat does this. I’ve lived in Chicago for 8 years. There are thousands of desis in the city and plenty more in the suburbs. We hear about bigotry in some of these parts (most notably that Naperville is homebase for the modern-day KKK) but nothing like this. I kept quiet for a long time because I didn’t know what to say. I’m not much of an organizer but I take direction really well! Point me in the right direction and I’ll call/write/protest.
Really? I’m sorry to tangent off the original point here but I don’t think hate crimes make national news unless they’re extremely sensational — even more than this. It’s such old hat in this country.
Clueless – many of those will be useful bits of information to have, and they’ll come out sooner if somebody in the press looks into it, which only happens when noise is made. However, I disagree with you about polygraph machines:
National security professionals I’ve heard speak on this topic generally think it’s unreliable, they trust it even less than the NAS does.
N.W.A. said it best..
Concur with #66. It would not surprise me if the allegations turn out to be true, but we don’t know yet if they are. And, yes, police officers carry their own burden of assumption and stereotypes…
Well said. When I hear things like this it mostly fills me with sorrow instead of anger, which I thought was the “weaker” response but the older I get the more I understand that anger might fuel some fire but it won’t generate change. I do not believe in “wait and see” but Clueless you are right — it would be prudent to hear the information first. I hear this and in my heart of hearts think it’s a hate crime perpetrated by an individual who’s paid to protect society but none of us actually know what happened.
I guess my attitude is that information doesn’t come out on its own. Cops are given a great deal of trust and leeway, especially if they haven’t fired their weapons and there are no third party witnesses around. If Nag was seriously hurt as the press release said, and if there’s any chance that there was racism involved, it’s worth making some noise about the need for investigation. That doesn’t mean condemning and sentencing the officer before all the facts are out, it’s just a practical statement about the balance of power between the state and the individual.
Look. I grok the whole, “let’s be cautious and doubt shit”-bit…I am a St. Thomas xtian, after all. Having said that, I really don’t think an org as wonderful as SALDEF would publicly get behind this unless it were true. This is now a lawsuit and sometimes that limits what can and can’t be disclosed.
I’m all for critical thinking and weighing everything, but fuck…where is your outrage? And why is Razib the only one who has linked to this? All of you have blogs– plenty of you ache for memes and stupid personality quizzes in order to generate content because, like, posting is hard. HERE IS YOUR CONTENT. Update your sites, please. If we don’t make noise, who will?
amitabh (#47) is not ME, the Amitabh that’s been commenting here for quite a while now. Dude, get a different handle!
Mr. Nag obviously did nothing to provoke the idiot who disgraces the police force. If the “police officer” called him racial slurs, it is obvious that he just wanted some flimsy excuse to beat up a non white.
Too bad that so called policeman doesn’t patrol the streets of Chicago near the projects/higher crime areas. He needs to do some real work and not beat innocents to a pulp.
You forgot one. the guy on the ground has the police officers hand trapped between his left forearm, and body, causing him excruciating pain, in fact, he’s using a traditional ayurvedic pressure point, if you crush a hand that way, it could be fatal.
That’s why he’s on the radio, getting help.
Seriously why rag on the cops? They’re white, they deserve at least one racial incident as a gimme.
Verified and so amended.
Mr. Bachchan is going to be pissed…
Neale, I think you are looking for Gregory Crewdson.
HMF you are right all white cops are racist.
Oh now c’mon, don’t sound so optimistic.
Shodan, Bingo!
The suburbs I’ve been to (outside Phoenix, Lansing, and Indianapolis) are pretty diverse; a big change in less than 10 yrs from what long-time residents said. Some people just CAN’T deal with reality!!!
This reminds me of a case that was big when I was living in Chicago. A black guy was walking through neighbourhood. He got hassled by white cops. The black guy happened to be an off-duty cop. He sued the city etc. etc. If a police can get this treatment from his “brothers”, I guess everyone else is fair game.
Where’s Al M when we need him?
What happened to Mr. Nag was despicable and I hope that the cop will be punished to the full extent of the law.
How many other South Asians and Arabs are out there who have been profiled by the police who have no way of retaliation against the injustice that has been done to them? Mr. Nag was relatively lucky (if I can use that term) to have been a suburban, middle-class family-man (not to mention a distinguished veteran). All of that helps in his case. However, what if he was an immigrant cab driver living in a poor urban area with no connections, and was too intimdated to get legal help? I’m willing to bet that we never hear about many of these cases.
I think racial profiling of minorities is not just a black problem, or a latino problem, or a South Asian problem. Its partly caused by the same things; people become more susceptible to it as a result of poverty, and a lack of community resources. We should all be working together to erase minority profiling in the states once and for all. I mean, no matter how different we percieve ourselves to be, a racist cop will only see someone with dark skin.
In 1990 I went through a similar experience in North Carolina while driving a car with Panamanian tags (several days after the deadline to change them) with military stickers. In this case was ordered out of the vehicle, grabbed and forcibly positioned up against the car, and roughly searched by a police officer obviously on some secret mission to indimidate me. When I complained that the administrative nature of this offence hardly merited the “dangerous criminal” handling, he just got more authoritarian and aggressive. Makes you wonder about the recruiting and training of local police. And I’m a white American. Wasn’t it Thomas Jefferson that said that petty tyrany was the worst sort? I later went through a rough, testicle twisting search by Bolivian police agents, but you expect that kind of behaviour from third world police forces. I hope your post mobilizes action against Mr. Singh’s abuser.
Ronak, thank you so much for blogging about this story. More people need to hear about what happened. Where the rest of you at?
This is horrible.
Poor kid, he must be devastated. How can somebody come up and do at AT YOUR HOME!
And just for some stupid tag?
There is enough crime in the City to keep that cop busy if he really likes to use tag spray and assault people.
what a asshole!
thanks ANNA for posting this– i’m so tired of this ridiculous behavior on the part of law enforcement everywhere. this harassment by police officers that targets people of color HAS TO STOP!!!
I don’t blog anywhere, but I cross-posted the story to a number of (slightly random) places, and e-mailed it along to organizations that can make some noise.
I live in a city where the police force is frequently called out by the local media for racial insensitivity (particularly with respect to Native Americans). Sadly, this isn’t a one-off thing for racial minorities. Happens altogether too often, if you ask me.
Clueless seems bent on ignoring the power differentials between an armed man with racial privilege and an unarmed man who does not. Oh yeah, and the entire history of police brutality in this country.
Hema, go you! I appreciate all you’ve done. 🙂
Some minor points on Mr. Nag’s veteran status. A bronze star for service is highly respectable, but does not render him a “decorated” veteran in the general meaning of that term. To consider him one, his bronze star would have to been “with V Device” for valour. Within combat veterans circles, the term “decorated” normally refers to receipt of the Bronze Star with “V” Device, the Silver Star, or equivalent or higher awards for valour, not awards for exemplary service. The important matter here is that Mr. Nag is a loyal American citizen who willingly went to war for his country. The supreme irony is that he is from a segment of the Indian community likely to enter military or police service, and is thus generally favorable to persons in such occupations.
Thanks for the correction.
Gm – yeah, like low income communities need to be targeted even more by the police! This country has one of the highest numbers of incarcerated people and an extensive prison-industrial complex. How’s that working for us?
BG in post #94 give me a break. Yes this country has history of police brutality. But I don’t like the stereotyping that is going on this post about all cops. Maybe I didn’t get the memo that its ok to judge the action of few cops and say that all cops are like this.
I’m sorry but I can’t make a judgement in this case, because I don’t have enough info. Just look at the Duke lacross rape case. I bet there was a black website like this, that said those 3 players were guilty and the media coverage made it seem like those guys were guilty. Yet after all the info came out, it turned those 3 men were not guilty.
It is never wrong to be cautious: in fact, going ahead without getting all the information may ultimately hurt your cause. I’ll do my searching, get my information, and go from there. The first point of posts like this is to inform people and now you SM’ers have. Good for you. The second point is this: Do you want to really want something real to happen? My idea about contacting veterans organizations and veterans blogs will do more than simply linking this post on my inactive, 20 hits a da, chump-change blog. If you really want change, than you think carefully about how you are going to do it. And of course you can verify his veterans status: a vets group will do it for you.