Our tip lines have been exploding about a New York incident involving a Sikh high school student who was assaulted; his turban was ripped off and then his hair, which had never been shorn, was cut against his will. Unfortunately for those of you who kept submitting the story, there were crickets chirping in the bunker this weekend. Our delay in blogging it was not a reflection of whether we feel the issue was important or not.
Here are the facts I have gleaned from the various links sent in:
- The Sikh boy was trading “Yo Mama”-like insults with two others
- Things got out of hand
- He tried to apologize
- He was informed that the only way to do so would be a haircut (WTF?)
- That’s when he was dragged in to a bathroom and cut
- Two other boys served as “lookouts”
- All the boys may or may not have been friends
- The teenaged defendant is a Muslim of Pakistani descent
- Other desi students said this was anomalous for their school.
From the Queens D.A.’s press release:
District Attorney Brown said that, according to the charges, just after 12:00 noon on May 24, 2007, the defendant, armed with a pair of scissors, approached 15-year-old Vacher Harpal in the hallway of Newtown High School, located at 48-01 90th Street, and stated, “I have to cut your hair.†When Harpal asked, “For what, it is against my religion,†the defendant allegedly displayed a ring with Arabic inscriptions and stated, “This ring is Allah. If you don’t let me cut your hair, I will punch you with this ring.†It is alleged that Harpal initially refused to go into the bathroom with the defendant because he feared that the defendant would hurt him with the scissors.
Once inside the bathroom, it is alleged that Harpal removed his dastar while crying and begging the defendant not to cut his hair, which had never been cut and fell past his waist. The defendant is then alleged to have used the scissors to cut Harpal’s hair to the neckline and thrown the hair into the toilet and onto the floor. [link]
Is this a hate crime? Or just juvenile stupidity and roughhousing gone too far?
Love the title. Forcible hair-cutting is certainly a hate crime. Same as ripping off a hijab.
But (and I hate to note this) we should probably wait for more facts. I can think of two recent cases, in Vancouver and Sctoland (which was the topic of an SM post) where a young Sikh boy falsely claimed that he has his hair forcibly removed.
The term “brown on brown” hate crime sounds wierd (though it makes sense in a US context). What were the Gujurat riots? The Indian and Pakistani Ayodhya riots? Was partition a brown-on-brown hate crime? The Holocaust — a white-on-white hate crime?
It is a hate crime once it reached the point where the defendant was aware that cutting the Sikh’s hair was more humiliating than punching him with the ring of Allah. Other observations: 1) The Sikh shouldn’t feel that bad about his hair being cut. The guy willingly took part in a fight he was not prepared to fight all the way. He already ceased being a true Sikh man by crying like a wimp and letting his hair get cut instead of letting his face meet the Ring of Allah. The hair is just part of the package of being that. Once the package is broken, who cares about the the other parts of the package such as the hair? 2) If I am the Sikh kid’s brother or another relative, I will meet the defendant after his inevitable release and force the kid to eat bacon. Everything is even at that point.
Sorry, but when I read this (not expecting it), I burst out laughing.
Personally, I think this episode is in a vast gray area between roughhousing and hate-crime. I remember hearing about “taunts” like this when I was in middle school between various groups and some Sikh kids at my school, but it seemed to be more just talk than anything.
It is a crime. It does not deserve any less or more punishment than any other similar crime.
Regarding the brown on brown title, in this case, it is more of a religious tribalism at work more than racist factors. Using brown on brown would be as bad as characterizing the conflict in N Ireland as White on White. I think the brown on brown is more appropriate where FOBs and ABDs or CBDs fight each other.
I will meet the defendant after his inevitable release and force the kid to eat bacon. Everything is even at that point.
And so the cycle would continue.
Change the defendant to a couple of white kids – is it a hate crime then?
“Change the defendant to a couple of white kids – is it a hate crime then?â€
if they are Sikh, yes.
There’s another “brown on brown” crime in the newstab. A Bangladeshi killed a Gujarati family in California over what appears to be jilted love. The article framed it as a dispute over religion.
Can it be a juvenile hate crime– that’s what it sounds like to me.
Anna, your reference to Alexander Pope is apposite. ;>)
Pravin (#2) said:
Good thing there are macho Sikh men like you out there to impose their definition of “a true Sikh man” on children.
Personally, I think ‘hate crimes’ as a vector for justice is tre nebulous, this case notwithstanding…
(Link)
why are “hate crimes” punished harsher than other crimes? I owuld think the punishment should be the same thing for the same crime regardless? Any lawyers here that can explain that better?
He should have just taken the punch or just fought the dude.(I know the kid had scissors,but the dummy probably would have put them down before he threw the punch).
If the events happened as reported, then yes, I think it would qualify as a hate crime.
i remember most of the desis in my high shcool were overachieving geek types. has that changed since then? Did i just go to an abnormal high school?
Can we please refrain from speculating about what the child should or should not have done? He was 15. None of us was calm, cool or collected at that awful age. It’s easy to assert what someone should do, when it’s a theoretical exercise.
Now that I have got that out of my system, I have to say that I can’t stop wondering if he wanted to get rid of his hair and had his friends help him out in a plan now gone horribly awry.
1) The Sikh shouldn’t feel that bad about his hair being cut. The guy willingly took part in a fight he was not prepared to fight all the way. He already ceased being a true Sikh man by crying like a wimp and letting his hair get cut instead of letting his face meet the Ring of Allah. The hair is just part of the package of being that. Once the package is broken, who cares about the the other parts of the package such as the hair?
Thanks for blaming the victim. You are a real man.
what does “taking the fight all the way” mean? sounds ominous.
The act was intended (and, since our jackass homeboy Le Perpetrator was packing shears, premeditated) to humiliate the kid by targeting one of the core symbols of his religious identity. Hate crimes often reinforce structural racism/homophobia/sexism/religious tribalism present in the majority society in the worst way, so they are treated more punitively, when the books allow.
And as for whoever said this:
That was a deee-licious slice of crazy you just baked there, dude! You must be mantastic to have the kind of stones it takes to stand up and insult a traumatized kid. I bet your insecurity is buffed to a fine sheen, blingity-bling.
interesting…thx.
Of course, if we call it what it is, some chap will come about and claim “ah sepia mutiny is biased against pakistanis”…
I would say let’s wait for more facts to come out. Why did this kid go into the bathroom? Daytime in a high school, he could have just run (that is not very Sikh-like either but hey he’s human, he’s a kid, it’s definitely understandable especially if the other guy is a lot bigger)…no way the other guy was going to come running after him in front of everyone and forcibly cut his hair. The defendant’s sister says these two were friends, and the Sikh boy requested the other to cut his hair. I’m not saying that’s what happened, but more facts need to come out. If this story is true, yes it’s a hate crime, but it is rather wimpy how he conducted himself.
Teenagers are hurtful and stupid? Shocking! I’d call this a hate crime, though what does that even mean when the perps aren’t adults?
Jesus H. Christ, does anyone else think this kid is a disgrace to Sikhism? I’d love to hear from other Sikhs especially (Amitabh, not sure if you are one).
Also, does anyone have a link for this? Very interesting.
Puliogre, hate crimes are punished harsher because it does not affect one individual but an ethnicity or culture that person belongs to (wikipedia).
As for Pravin’s comment:
The Sikh shouldn’t feel that bad about his hair being cut. The guy willingly took part in a fight he was not prepared to fight all the way. He already ceased being a true Sikh man by crying like a wimp and letting his hair get cut instead of letting his face meet the Ring of Allah. The hair is just part of the package of being that. Once the package is broken, who cares about the the other parts of the package such as the hair?
Where did that come from? It’s easy to say that he should have stood up and fought to the bitter end when you are so far removed from the situation.
Aren’t all crimes due to hate? (a la southpark)
And I love all the manly Indian men piping in with what they would have done. Everyone is a gangstarr on the Internet it seems.
Aren’t all crimes due to hate? (a la southpark)
The shoutout to South Park notwithstanding, a mugger doesn’t take your wallet because he hates you. All crimes are not motivated by racial/religious animus, so they’re not “hate” crimes.
You made me laugh out loud:)
i would make a pretty $hitty gangsta. skinny little geeky guy. ive only gotten into 1 fight in my life. thats cause some young kid in a club actually punched the girl i was with at the time. no way to avoid violence in that case.
why are “hate crimes” punished harsher than other crimes? I owuld think the punishment should be the same thing for the same crime regardless? Any lawyers here that can explain that better?
There are different justifications for hate crimes. It terrorizes the group to which the victim belongs because the perpetrator targeted the victim because of his membership in that particular group. It has the component of additional malice beyond the ones already codified in law. It also comes handy in cases of religious discrimination, for example, in the absence of this law, yanking off a cap from a persons head would be punishable at the same level as yanking off a hijab from a Muslim womans head or a turban from a Sikh mans head.
I figure his karha would have been bigger than the ring his assailant was wearing…
Daytime in a high school, he could have just run (that is not very Sikh-like either but hey he’s human, he’s a kid, it’s definitely understandable especially if the other guy is a lot bigger)…
Its Hindu-like to back down and be all wimpy?
is there a lot of inter religion violence in the brown community in the US? Doesnt seem to be spoken about very much. dont really hear about it much on tv, or in community papers, etc.
what are ‘yo-mama’ type insults? how insulting were these insults?
If the events unfolded as reported, I would say it’s totally a hate crime. As Ikram said, it’s similar to ripping off someone’s hijab. There is no reason to go after someone’s hair in this context without it having religious significance.
For the love of Pete! And people wonder why (after reading these comments) Sikh boys have machismo issues or why so many young Sikhs are turned off by the faith/faith community. Are you reading what you wrote? Because he couldn’t “see the fight through” he deserved to be attacked and is no longer a Sikh? I’m glad you’re not around to judge who gets “let in the Sikh club” next time.
Talk about missing the point!!! I am going to go stick my head in a bag and scream.
Puliogre, I like to think of this as the difference between Murder 1 and Murder 2 (or Manslaughter and Murder). The difference is your intent, and it is punished accordingly. That said, a person can’t be charged with a hate crime outright. You’re charged for a different crime (in this case, I would guess assault) and then you receive a hate crime joinder. Personally I think there is a difference between someone hurting someone because they got out of hand, and someone targeting someone’s identity and using that as an excuse to terrorize them.
Pondatti wrote:
Also, does anyone have a link for this? Very interesting.
Yep. Check out the video at this website
With quite a lot of chutzpah, the sister of the accused crashed the Sikh press conference, interrupting a white politician and claimed that Vacher asked Umair to cut his hair, and that the deal was that Vacher would claùim he got “jumped”. But another student interviewed claimed that Umair and Vacher exchanged threats previously.
As an aside, to me, ethnic leaders in New York, whether Black, Irish, Jewish, Muslim or (in this case) Sikh, all look very slimy and opportunistic. Is it something about the climate? The NYC accent? Or just the nature fo the ethnic greivance game that all American minorities play these days, where every incident, even between those too young to remember the Reagan presidency, is used (at worst) to grandstand or (at best) as a ‘teachable moment’. Is this kind of thing really necessary?
maybe its because these poeple claim to speak for their people, and people actually believe them. you have to be a bit of a sleaze to pull that off.
What is this?! Maybe next time they should just whip out their dicks and compare.
Sandeep, you should watch the “Yo Mama” comedy show on MTV. This is a much “tamer” example — Yo mama so fat, she use a mattress for a maxi pad.
I figure his karha would have been bigger than the ring his assailant was wearing…
What is this?! Maybe next time they should just whip out their dicks and compare.
I’m saying that why be afraid of someone wearing a ring on a finger when you have a karha that’s definitely much larger in size and you could definitely use to defend yourself?
what are ‘yo-mama’ type insults? how insulting were these insults?
Yo mama so fat she put on her lipstick with a paint-roller
How do you know how big his kara was? Honestly, can we lay off with this shit?
I agree with the everybody who’s saying that we need to wait for more facts before we start judging anybody.
I don’t know how often it actually happens that a Sikh kid asks people to beat him up and cut his hair, but I’ve heard it suggested enough (jokingly?), and heard of enough actual cases, to remain skeptical at this point…which is really a shame.
Seconded! Seriously, people. No cheesedickery. Making fun of kids getting hurt is so May. Let’s usher in a June crammed proper with mama jokes. My favorite:
Yo mama’s so fat, she’s got smaller fat mamas orbiting around her.
I take yo yo mamma joke and raise it with a racist joke.
Russell Peters (if you’re impatient, forward about 1 minute into the video) for the two people on this board who haven’t seen his performance.
@ #40
thanks for posting the video. Sorry, but who the heck is she to just crash a press conference like that? They can have their own one.
I don’t believe the accused’s sisters story either, about what supposedly “really happened”. Why on earth would the Sikh boy ask someone else to cut off his hair, and then say he was just jumped? The fact that it happend in a school bathroom only disapproves her story even more. The Sikh boy would just cut it off himself, and then say he was jumped by someone he didn’t know. Thats what happened with the 2 cases when a Sikh boy cut off his hair, and then said he just jumped. Those boys never involved anybody else they knew.
Navi, be real. The kid could just as easily ask a friend to “stage a fight” and do the same thing. I’m not saying I believe either story. The sad thing is we won’t know until we hear more. I wish that, as a community, we could offer kids the strength to be honest.