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.
As a reminder, people so interested in doing so can post this article on MySpace/Facebook as well as send the press release to their Alma Mater’s desi student organization mailing lists…
After I read about this on brownsugar’s blog and here, I emailed a friend. Her response:
“Actually a friend of mine from the Indian American Bar Association was just talking about this incident today. We are contacting the local media tonight”
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�
Anna – I am sorry to say that this will not happen in our lifetimes. Not even if “desis” get to about 25% of the population. And not in a 100 years. Sikhs got murdered by the hundreds in 1984. What we can do is clamp down on such behaviour. I live in a far more racist country and am very aware that my kids will hear these comments and be hurt. I have occassionally heard these comments but I just laugh and respond – how about you go back to the country you came from. That response leaves the offender dumbfounded ( in most cases)
The behaviour of this cop is outrageous. I think cops all over the world are the same. I have never met a “good” cop. They kiss up (the powerful) and kick down (the weak).
There are two ways to deal with such cops
1) Give him a sound kicking preferably silently. Four strong desis would be enough to jump him at night and beat him to within an inch of his life – put him in hospital for 1 year. Maybe even cut his tongue out. Bullies understand violence better than any language.
2) Non violence. A “name and shame” campaign. All desis around USA wear a black armband protesting this high handed behaviour. Light candles and march in silent procession to his neighbourhood. Leave his printed picture with his crime on a pamphlet and spread them all around the city where he works.
My preference is to use the second method first but be prepared to use the first one if there is no benefit.
Speak softly but carry a big stick with you.
A sikh mate of mine who now works for “The Firm” once said that the 1984 riots would never recur again coz the Sikhs are now prepared to fight back.
Make life so hard for this cop that he will run from that town – never to return.
I for one would never trust a cop and would never get on their wrong side – in any country.
African Americans and the feminists have learnt that unless you get onto the streets it is hard to get any respect.
Nada: I’m not allowed to respond, lest I be “off-topic.” I suppose we can chat offline if you’re interested. (Your name isn’t e-maily clickable.)
Anna: I started on-topic, in that Nag’s veteran status was deliberately emphasized in the story to call attention to the further outrageousness of all this. (I tend to think it’s just outrageous that it happened, period.) And because I’m a former “Illinois desi,” and you DID ask “where [we] at.”
I’m going to leave now, having been reminded of why I normally lurk here (and it’s getting late, anyway). Eventually I’ll run out of IP addresses and servers to remote-desktop to to post from, and I can’t afford to have them ALL banned in one night.
Oh, by the way — to “Clueless,” above: I’m also Punjabi, and my family came here — to the USA — from Punjab/HP from 1967 to 1987. So I do know a little something about what it’s like to be a Punjabi living here, thanks. And Canada’s a great place — why call yourself “clueless” solely on that basis? 😉
Okiedoke. Night night.
So once again you chose to not wait out the facts to emerge but instead rushed to rage about an allegedly racial incident. Remember that Iranian guy at UCLA or the Leela Lounge incident? What about the Sikh youths allegedly getting their heads forcibly shaved by White supremacists? All those incidents turned out to be either hoaxes or not racist incidents. But of course you painted them that way and never did a follow up post when finally the facts did come out. It’s unbelievable that the cop pulls out his pepper spray and baton just because a resident verbally refused to park his vehicle in his garage. And he is yelling racial epithets in the front yard where the nighbors and any passersby could be easy witnesses? What is this – Saudi Arabia? But the unexplainably touchy and the perpetually victim SM community doesn’t care for reason when it comes to matters of race. And yes the hate for America and for the White race in general has predictably begun to trickle in.
Folks, make no mistake; the anglosphere, current numero uno on earth, has been racist and xenophobic from the beginning. In Australia even greeks and italians are called wogs and there is racial tension between the anglos and the mediterranean types, though both are “caucasians”. And we all know what the anglos did to the australiaqn aborigines, whose phenotype is desi; and to the native american “indians” whose phenotype is mongoloid; and to the africans.
Until the Civil Rights Movement of Martin Luther King Jr, who was inspired by Gandhi, desis as a colored race would have been treated far worse than this. Perhaps like they were in South Africa under apartheid. The only reason America changed in the 60s was because it was loosing the global battle for hearts and minds against it’s arch enemy of the time: the communists. External pressure is important as you can see. Similarly, perhaps only external pressure will force India to change its own caste based discriminations. Take this opportunity to feel empathy for the lot of the “untouchable” hindus of India as well, and for all victimized peoples anywhere on earth.
This is outrageous. We should definitely spread the word.
Generalizing this to include “all the cops” is going a bit over-board. Having been in the US for last 7 yrs, I’ve never been subjected to any racial behavior by a cop.
155:
Why don’t you enlighten us with some links?
Some of you people that think all cops are bad. So what do you people say about the 60 cops who died on 9/11 in the World Trade Center, were they bad cops too.
Dheerjai if you hate the United States so much, where do you think a great place would be for punjabi person to live.
How the fuck are the facts going to emerge if no one knows this even happened? THAT is why I wrote this post; that silence, that darkness surrounding something so disturbing. All I’m asking for is awareness, attention and hopefully an investigation. That’s the only way we’ll get those precious facts.
Here, Here!
I’m an idiot.
HEAR, HEAR!!!
joliet is not exactly the prefect suburb one imagines when mentioning american suburbia. i’ve been there a few times and have heard and seen things that obviously makes it seem like a typical “redneck” town.
the people aren’t that educated and the population is primarily working class white, with some percentage of blacks and latinos. i’m surprised there’s any desis living there at all, we rarely venture out of cook and dupage counties. to people in illinois, i don’t think that this happening in joliet of all places is going to be a huge surprise.
Point taken. I do stand at a different place, but I’ll refrain from writing the treatise because you’re right about the strategic importance of keeping focused on this particular incident. I’m sending the story out on my listservs. Onwards…
You’d be surprised where you can desis. I’ve talked with white folks about desis they know from McAlster, Oklahoma to the deep south. Most are usually pretty enthusiastic to talk about desis with me, seeing a brown person. Many may not be the brightest, and I’ve got the standard “Are you related to so and so, you’re last name is Patel”. Nothing insidious, though. Having lived in the burbs a long time, I’m actually not surpsied at all that Joliet at desis. Makes sense that as communities expand out of the Chicago metro area, they expand to places like Joliet (along the spokes of the major highways).
Not saying shit doesn’t happen, because it does. Gotta say though, you’ll find desis tucked away in the most odd places of this country and world.
This is a horrifying incident. I hope the facts come to light quickly and justice is swift for the aggrieved couple. No matter who was rude first, I guess the take-away from this situation is that cops need sensitivity training. I find it hard to believe that the cop in question would have allowed the situation to escalate if the owner of the vehicle was a regular-joe white guy. The fact that he is brown, and looks “arab” to this man caused him to behave offensively towards Mr. Nag, and thereby escalate the situation.
Verbal abuse of any sort does not warrant pepper-spray and assault. I have seen crackheaded pimps on COPS do that without suffering any consequences. I would assume that a vet deserves similar treatment at the very least.
Joliet has a NASCAR track, a major prison closed in ’02 and a couple of riverboat casinos. Median income $48K, 70% white, 18% black.
Shruti (#164):
Right on. I was in the middle of writing something to back up your #135 but it requires so many stories…
Manish (#167):
Yup, Jake Blues was incarcerated there.
Prema – From your comment I take it that you are “down under” not “up over” or atleast have great familiarity with the issues down here. I had half a mind to call myself “wog boy” 🙂 Abos really do get the short end of the stick in Oz.
A cop is someone who seeks to enforce the rules of the establishment by using physical force or the threat of physical force. They may not be bad persons. Try not to confuse the two.
What about awards given out? *Unrelated to this post, just curious how you would know.
Technically, no. From National Archives website: Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act (FOIA)
The public has access to certain military service information without the veteran’s authorization (or that of the next-of-kin of deceased veterans). Examples of information which may be available from Official Military Personnel Files without an unwarranted invasion of privacy include:
If the veteran is deceased:
Dheeraj,
If this country is so bad to you why don’t you self-deport?
Gazsi
Right aussie desi, so you think when that cop yelled “You f****** Arab! You f***** immigrant, go back to you f****** country before I kill you!” he was merely seeking to enforce “the rules of the establishment”? Maybe in your book that does not make him a “bad person”, but in my book it does.
Gaszi, what an inane comment. There are problems in every country, why shouldn’t we try to work for progress in the country where we are in?
Clueless’ comment: “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.”
Um…just because charges are dropped doesn’t mean they are innocent. Ooh, big surprise, a bunch of rich white guys got off. How unusual.
This “support your country even if it doesn’t treat you like an equal citizen” nonsense disturbs me. Blind nationalism towards any country is problematic, destructive, moronic and has nothing to do with justice.
Clueless said: “Dheerjai you comments were very stupid to say the least. Racism is a problem in the United States. But it also problem in every other country on the planet.”
Why do people always use that trite line? What a nonsensical deflection. Again, how about we work for progress in the country we happen to be in? If everyone had such a lazyass attitude like that, there would be no positive social change.
Oops I may have created some confusion. I dont like cops – period. A cop to me symbolizes power of the establishment by suppressing the marginalized. Thus, I dont like cops any more than I like slave owners. Hence, the cop yelling obscenities is doubly evil – if that is possible.
Prema – I concur.
My comment was more in response to the various comments that asked not to generalize about cops. I am generalizing about the behaviour of cops not the persons. Subtle distinction.
Replace establishment and marginalized with Bourgeoisie and Proletariat and I could be a commie 🙂
There are private investigator firms that specialize in veteran’s databases but they are “unofficial”, and will be first to claim their incompleteness.
The story is no.2 at reddit right now
Yeah. That’s how privacy works. However, it was a first step in learning how to go about and verify his veteran status. Things aren’t just lying about the internet for everyone to see. But I agree, even if he wasn’t a veteran, this is absolutely unacceptable. I’m glad it’s progressed to other blogs and become a bigger story. The system can work!
I’m a bit late in the discussion. This news is a total shock to me because my hometown is Plainfield(right next to Joliet). I called my parents and they didn’t hear a thing about it. Particularly, since my dad is a doctor at the two major hospitals in Joliet. There is a small desi community in the Joliet area for a while now and it has being growing, but not as fast or large as Naperville. A little history about racism in the area that I know of: Before our family moved there in the early 90’s a black school teacher was run out of town by the KKK a few years earlier in Plainfield,IL. That being said the size of Plainfield at that time was around 4,000. Today it is somewhere about 30,000. Joliet itself is about 150,000. The huge growth I have not nor has my family ever experienced any overt racism in the last 10+ years of living there. I’m going to see if I can get a hold of few more family friends and see if they have heard anything about this.
Why is this not in the media?? The African-American community did not take Don Imus’s comments sitting down. Anyone makes an anti-semitic slur, it’s headlines.
Let’s get mad and get vocal! Why are we saying Joliet is redneck so what can you do? At least educate them! Show them a map and where India is and where Saudia Arabia is. (Maybe Sanjaya should hold up a map of the world since he gets the biggest audience)
If Don Imus can lose his show, this cop should lose his license.
Ashi
That Mr. Nag is not from the Middle East is not the issue. The way he was treated would have been unacceptable for any Arab man as well. Showing racists a map doesn’t quite remove their racism.
1 day has passed and not a blurb on a MSM site. Astonishing and sickening.
The sad fact is that for all the hullabaloo in the desi media outlets on how desis are becoming more and more relavent in mainstream Amrika, we’re politically irrelevant. You can bet if the same thing happened to a black guy or Latino, it would’ve raised a firestorm that would’ve at least resulted in that officer getting canned. It goes back to the apathy among the community and lack of political leadership at the grassroots level.
The “closest” thing I found in google news:
Do we have any assassins/ninjas in the group here? Your services may be required by the Indian community.
This story is on Digg. The more you digg it, the more relevant it will become and more people will read it. If you dont have a digg account please get one and digg this story.
I updated the story to reflect that fact that his legal counsel has seen the appropriate paperwork (the DD-214 form) and can indeed verify that he is a veteran. Hopefully you all would support him just as much if he wasn’t a veteran, but since people had asked, I thought I would let you know that there appears to be documentation supporting his status.
I doubt I have that many readers but it’s up on my blog now with links.
Brother just can’t catch a fuckin break can he?
This is not the first time a Desi veteran has been racially abused by law enforcement in the US. Sepia Mutiny covered the case of a Navy Dr. Bob Rajkoomar racially abused and mis treated on a plane.
Why do Desis have to prove whether or not they were veterans?? Do veterans have MORE RIGHTS than regular citizens?? How about asking for police that does not racially attack minorities ?? Is it too much to ask?
They don’t; the fact that Mr. Nag was a vet just adds an extra layer of heartbreak to the story. It also underscores that no matter how patriotic we might be, we’re still seen as outsiders.
Thanks Coach, and all those who are linking this story. This story MUST not go away quiety.
How can we get a higher profile on search results on google for this story?? Experts, let us know.
Oh dear, I think my initial comments might have lead the thread astray 🙂 And not the first time, I may add…
My point wasn’t anything other than: this is terrible as it is reported and I would like to know more about what happened and get to the bottom of it. In doing that, I suggested that veterans groups be contacted to publicize this incident. In suggesting that course of action, I thought it was good to verify a thing or two. Nothing more than crossing t’s and dotting i’s. No one should be mistreated, and my point wasn’t to harp on his veteran status, but to use it to publicize this incident.
187 Ritam, what do you mean by your comment? Confused….
“1 day has passed and not a blurb on a MSM site. Astonishing and sickening.”
they’re probably more interested in covering ludicrous conspiracy theories about “indian” sanjaya malakar than they are about reporting incidents where ethnicity could be more important to the story.
NO comments involving assassinations / death threats / even Ninjas please, even when clearly meant in jest. Making such comments is a serious matter.
Apologies if I restate something – I read through the comments, but not super super closely, so I may have missed something.
I got this story in my inbox yesterday and my heart just sank. [an aside: I can’t believe I had to find out about this on email – I have family in Illinois who didn’t even know this had happened!] I don’t know how to convey the amount of pain and despair I feel every time I hear about yet another (violent) anti-Sikh incident. Honestly, I don’t know the details, but I doubt that Mr. Nag instigated something with the cop. As Ennis mentioned, many cops are notorious for using excessive force and then explaining it away as being a defensive move. While there are witnesses (his wife and child? Disgusting!), they are both family members. It is super hard to prove that cops are liable in civilian-cop encounters like this one. It’s mad frustrating.
As some folks alluded to, though, this could be an awesome opportunity for strategic alliances. I don’t think the Sikh community (or desi community at-large) does enough to create long-standing nation-wide alliances with other people of color organizations, particularly not African-American or Latin@/Latin@-American organizations. This is a great time to say, “We are experiencing the same thing! Let’s back each other up!”
#37
. As Megan mentioned, Copwatch is a good resource, as is . The latter may have referrals to services in Illinois; it’s hard for me to think there wouldn’t be resources in Chi-town at least.
I don’t mean to stoke the fire, but I am 100% with Shruti on this one. Clueless, if you don’t understand the analogy, then please don’t continue to rail on about how “all cops are not bad.” That is absolutely not what Shruti, or I, am saying. That said, there are absolutely policies that reinforce institutionalize racism among MANY police forces across the U.S., and hundreds of people each year are the victims of unwarranted police violence. Just as I don’t think it helps doctors to protect that small % of people who engage in real medical malpractice, I don’t think it helps the public standing and relations of police departments to continue to back up “bad cops.”
I don’t know, I guess what I most take away from this is that the Sikh community and desi community at large have a lot of potential in this moment, and in the general context of increased post-9/11 profiling, to do strategic work with other communities and to be better allies. It’s not like this is the first time for Sikhs or desis that we have been racially profiled or harrassed, and it’s not like 9/11 was the only catalyst. I know my father (who then lived in Phoenix when it was even less diverse than it is now) was harassed every single day of the Iran hostage crisis, and afterwards, by local police. They never beat him up, but things absolutely came close. Even when he was living in Wisconsin and in Chicago he harassed, threatened, or verbally abused on a daily basis.
Ok, enough with the rant. Heartfelt sympathies and support for Mr. Nag and his family.
I’m sorry, I left a broken link for Bay Area Police Watch.
The cable news talking heads were giving air time to the ridiculous theory of “Indian Call center employees behind Sanjaya”. A talking head on MSNC and a nut job on CNN both were mouthing this quasi-racist rant under the guise of entertainment/news. I dont have any hope of real journalism from the cable TV nut jobs. Only hope is mainstream papers of record of devote time and resources to covering real stories, such as NYT and WaPo.