First Matthew Shepherd. Now Satendar Singh?
??
Satendar Singh, a 26-year-old Fiji national who had won a visa to the United States through the immigration lottery, died July 5 at Mercy San Juan Medical Center near Sacramento, Calif., after a four-day struggle to recover from head trauma he suffered July 1 following what has been described as a hate crime at Lake Natoma…Singh, who was picnicking July 1 with six friends of Fijian and Indian descent at a picnic area near Lake Natoma, was fatally injured in an assault during what witnesses told the Sacramento Bee was an ugly verbal attack laced with racist and homophobic slurs…
Despite his last name, Singh wore neither a turban nor a beard, aside from a small goatee. As he and his friends settled in to enjoy an early Fourth of July celebration, the Russian men began making several racial and homophobic remarks to Singh.
“I’m not pretty sure, but I think (Singh) responded by saying he wasn’t a gay,” one of Singh’s friends who witnessed the incident and who preferred to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, told India-West. “I told them we had come to enjoy the day and that we didn’t want to get into a fight or something, and I thought it was all over…”“They were targeting him because Satendar was dancing to Indian music throughout the rest of the day, like the rest of us…I don’t know what (the Russians) were saying or if Satendar said something back, but then it happened,” the witness said.[Link]
Whether or not Singh was gay isn’t clear, nor does it matter in the event the motive turns out to be homophobia. Elizabeth Edwards, who was campaigning for her husband in the Bay Area, used the opportunity to cite Singh in a speech railing against President Bush’s inaction on hate crime legislation:
Elizabeth Edwards told a prominent gay rights group Saturday night that her husband, presidential candidate John Edwards, would help repeal more than a thousand laws that discriminate against same-sex couples…The next day, her husband, John Edwards, said her position surprised even him. The former North Carolina Sen. opposes gay marriage but supports civil unions.
Citing the story of a Sacramento man who died after witnesses said he was beaten to death by men who thought he was gay, Edwards slammed President Bush for not doing anything to help protect gays and lesbians against violence.
“This president talks a lot about good and evil and the need to seek out evil doers,” she told a packed auditorium. “But he doesn’t seem to recognize the evil in hate crimes. The right to live without the fear of being murdered for whom we love is not a special right…” [Link]
What I find really peculiar about this story is that there doesn’t seem to be any effort to verify if he was really gay, or simply stereotyped as gay because he was “dancing to Indian music.” If dancing to Indian music makes one gay then it’s something we ought to know, right? Here is another article with the glaring headline: “Gay Immigrant Satendar Singh Killed in Holiday Hate Crime.” Regardless, there is now an effort to update the laws:
“If the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department asked for help from the federal government in this case, federal law enforcement officials could get involved if the crime turns out to be motivated by racial bias, but not if it was prompted only by anti-LGBT bias,” said Kors. “That gross inconsistency needs to change.”
Last week, Assembly member Mike Eng introduced Assembly Joint Resolution 29, sponsored by EQCA, which calls on the federal government to support the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Also known as the Matthew Shepard Act, the federal measure would expand the nation’s hate crimes protections to include sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability. It would also boost local law enforcement tools and resources to investigate and prosecute acts of violence against all protected communities of people. [Link]
<
p>
I read this story earlier, but have they arrested the guys who did it? The irony is that they are probably going to be dropping the soap for 20 to life in some roughhouse penitentiary somewhere.
I don’t believe they have caught them and I don’t think that the community they are suspected to be from will be sympathetic to the victim or law enforcement.
Whether or not he was homosexual shouldn’t matter in terms of the law as long as the assailants thought he was, I hope. I think the motivation is all that is needed for this to be tried as a hate-crime. However, the headline labeling him ‘gay immigrant’ is very poor journalism indeed, if done without any confirmation.
As for the bit about Indians dancing, it really all depends on perspective. Out of personal observation, I can say that some, or many of us desi guys are not as uncomfortable with each other as our western counterparts. For instance, having an arm around a friend’s shoulder … it’s all innocent stuff we guys never even used to think much about back in India. It’s only after we got here to the US that we are suddenly very cautious about the ‘image’ we are portraying… and so all these otherwise innocent gestures are abandoned. When it comes to dancing, desi parties always end up with these small ‘circular groups’ spread across the dance floor. When in such a ‘circular’ formation, it is not at all uncommon for two guys to step forward into the center of the circle and start dancing facing each other … or even two girls for that matter.
This is all in good fun, but only us desis can understand that. To a bystander like these Russians haters, that would be enough to evoke all the homophobic rage inside of them. Good luck in prison, y’all.
I agree with Randomizer, the emphasis needs to be put on the fact that it was a hate crime and not the debate over what his sexual orientation was.
wasn’t the controversy regarding shepherd that it was a drug crime, and his assailants claimed they killed him b/c he was gay and hitting on them b/c they thought it would give them sympathy with the jurors?
@Leeda: I do believe it is important that journalists confirm the facts before labeling him a gay immigrant merely because the attackers thought he was so. However, I am pretty sure it does not matter in the eyes of the law, and that is reassuring.
Whether he was gay or not, shouldn’t matter. It’s the intent of his murderers that dictates the type of crime. Those Russians attacked him for being ‘different’ whatever that may be and there should be an effort to verify. Plus, media should hold off before they declare the victim gay or not. Not because it’s insulting, but it’s pretty insensitive to his family especially if he weren’t gay, or if he were and still closeted pretty shocking if they never knew.
There is an interest with the politics currently for many to turn this into a gay bashing incident and rally to it. Now, if facts back it up, it should be portrayed as such, but it seems politicians are already using it for their purposes and agenda. How about ensuring by pulling every string that the federal help asked for gets there. I hope that happens.
This particular subsection of Russians is thought to be part of a fundamentalist (i.e. not Russian Orthodox) community….so pick the ways in which they would have found Satender Singh abhorrent.
i recall reading in a news article that satender had come out to his friends and family in the states? the source escapes me at the moment, but the quote i recall from his uncle and aunt, with whom he was living in cali, stated they were aware of his homosexuality, “but loved him nonetheless”.
regardless, his death makes my blood boil.
Interesting article from last year on the active homophobia of suspected community: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-russgay13oct13,0,3509076.story?coll=la-home-headlines
“Those Russians attacked him for being ‘different’ whatever that may be”
agreed, No one deserves to die for being different, whether being gay, Indian, or the way they dance. It’s an attack on freedom. The man died for being different, sickening.
It’s actually strange for me to see this framed as an LGBT issue, not because it can’t be, but because it was framed so heavily as a race/ethnicity issue in the initial press releases and coverage. I wonder why there was a switch? The original articles mentioned homophobic slurs, but they emphasized racial slurs instead.
At any rate, it doesn’t really matter what his identity was. Isn’t that part of the underlying thought behind hate crime legislation? It is operable for “real or perceived” identity. The whole incident is sickening and tragic.
Quickly, three (or more) connected thoughts:
I lived in Russia for 1 year and Ukraine for 5 years. Generally speaking, Indian film music is loved in the former Soviet U., perhaps more among the slightly older generation, but quite definitely so in the Asian republics like Uzbekistan. My point is the music, and its functions or any related parodies, are not unfamiliar to them
But generally speaking, being gay is extremely dangerous there. The worst form of insult/cuss word you can throw at somebody is the Russian word for homosexual. Despite it being overused everyday, especially among the young. Violent hatred for gays wins hands down over love/tolerance for Indian film music, generally speaking.
And generally speaking, there is a very high degree of violent racism among a relatively smaller proportion of the population. The one and only DIRECT, to-the-face, from-2-ft-away, purely malignant racial incident I experienced in my life was in a bus in the former USSR.
Have there been any ‘gang-initiation’ connotations at all in the newsreports? As Russian youth gangs and Russian “mafia” is a big prroblem (former, as far as I know, limited to Russia, latter in the US; but I am sure one influences the other)
@Camille #12 : “I wonder why there was a switch?”
I think a gay-hate incident would be more attention grabbing than an immigrant-hate incident… and would probably get more publicity as well as sympathy from the public. Also, isn’t the LGBT lobby much stronger than the immigrant lobby? Immigrants generally don’t have voting power, so politicians don’t really care.
I need to correct myself. ‘Russian mafia’ is a problem inside and outside of Russia/former republics.
I wonder if the coward deserves to be called a friend.
I find it puzzling that a bunch of Russian guys cannot be identified and arrested yet. From the description, these guys are obviously not some Russian computer programmers. They probably had an accent judging by the description of them as Russians and not some random white guy. These friends could not even spot a vehicle these Russians fled in?
The initial three or four stories I read about this incident said that the attackers were yelling both racist and homophobic slurs at the group and at Singh. They also mentioned that Singh was targeted not only because he was dancing to Indian music with other members of the group (including men), but because he was the only one without a female date. The Sacremento Bee story from last week is here: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/270787.html. (Sorry, having hyperlink issues today.)
All the initial stories I saw said that Singh was not gay but was perceived to be by the attackers; however, I did see one later story that said he was, but was not completely out. (Unfortunately, it’s on my work computer, and I can’t pull it up here.) But whether he was or not, that he was perceived to be is what’s important. That’s why they LGBT community in Sacramento is taking an interest in the case – and the above article lays out some of the tension that’s been building between the anti-gay religious Slavic community and the queer community in the city.
That’s why the hate crimes bill before the Senate now is so so important. Again, sorry about the non-hyperlink, but here’s the info: http://www.hrc.org/Content/NavigationMenu/HRC/Get_Informed/Federal_Legislation/Hate_Crimes_110th_Factsheet/The_Local_Law_Enforcement_Hate_Crimes_Prevention_Act_Matthew_Shepard_Act.htm
The religious right is trying to paint this bill as anti-free speech, but that’s just a lie. Your speech is only taken into account if you’re yelling something while committing a violent crime against another person. Bush, of course, has said that he will veto it if it passes, but the Senate could vote on it as soon as this week. Please, please, contact your Senators and tell them to support this bill. One of the things it will do is allow the FBI to both support local law enforcement in cases like this and step in if they think the local police aren’t doing as much as they should. I mean, how is it that Singh’s attackers haven’t been arrested or even identified yet?
Okay, so that second link fucked up. I’ll try again.
Go here: http://www.hrc.org/Content/NavigationMenu/HRC/Get_Informed/Federal_Legislation/Index.htm
And then click on the “The Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act/Matthew Shepard Act” (third link down). That’s the page I was trying to post.
Re: Randomizer
I think a gay-hate incident would be more attention grabbing than an immigrant-hate incident… and would probably get more publicity as well as sympathy from the public. Also, isn’t the LGBT lobby much stronger than the immigrant lobby? Immigrants generally don’t have voting power, so politicians don’t really care.
The LGBT ‘angle’ is so sensational because it’s new. How many visibly gay South Asians are out there? Also, Elizabeth Edwards picked it up because she was speaking at an HRC dinner.
Whether Mr. Singh was gay (and he’s probably the only one to know the real answer) or who he was out to, what matters is that the attack was motivated by homophobia.
It’s interesting that our discussion is around media outlets that played up the homophobia (can you really ‘play up’ homophobia or racism?); if anything, I’d say India-West downplayed it.
I don’t know whether this should be considered as violence against gays or indians (sadly anti gay epithets have became a pretty common general insult for anything that doesn’t conform to machoism so I don’t know that its definitely a homophobic attack), but either way its callous to be making political points on it.
What angers me more is that they haven’t found the guys yet. I mean there are reportedly at least 4 or 5 witnesses right who had seen the guys for a number of hours on the day. The guy who walked over with the brass knuckles should also be pretty easy to identify considering they can already narrow him down by ethnicity and physical factors. How bout getting justice for an individual who didn’t deserve to die at the hands of a bunch of animals?
Then again, I’m sure the police are just keeping quiet for an investigation–but it would be comforting for a number of different communities to at least hear about some progress.
In Sacramento . In California. In the year 2007. Two thousand and seven.
Why??
Randomizer, I’m sure (unfortunately) that you’re right. 🙁
I just read the sacramento bee article linked to by Lizzie. Here is something that made my blood boil
High priority and they still have not spoken to the people involved???????? I did not realize crime was such a huge problem in Sacramento that such a heinous blatant IN YOUR FACE incident can be subject to this kind of delay.
And considering there were warning signs that they might be trouble, why didnt a single Indian friend try to call 911 as this was going on if they did not have the ability or courage to fight these guys? It doesnt seem like it was a sudden sneak attack. That someone could do this and disappear without anyone identifying them is amazing in this day and age. Shame on the Slavic community for hiding this fucker. And shame on the local Indian community for not doing enough to rally around him.
Why isn’t support more forthcoming from the South Asian community? Let’s face it. Mr. Singh has the misfortune of being of Fijian extraction AND being surrounded by the ‘taint’ of homosexuality.
I think if he had been say… mentally-ill AND a leper, our community would at least hold some meetings about rallying around him.
Details about this incident remain unclear. Such as, why did his friends let him face his fate alone?
And just so I understand this (and don’t inadvertantly get my skulled crushed). An Indian guy hanging out with mixed company is a homosexual. And, a group of guys participating in a Russian sausage-fest piss-up are… heterosexuals?
This story has so broken my heart. Mostly because of the lack of noise from the Russian community for not identifying these bastards, for the lack of involvement from the so called friends who were witnesses and from the lack of support and push from the South Asian community. I emailed everyone I know. Please email everyone you know to spread the word about this. I can’t believe a man is dead, killed in broad daylight by a bunch of fucking animals with witneness to boot and no one has been arrested yet!!
For all this, the article that lc includes in his comment #10 says that the sheriff’s deputy in the Sacramento community is a Russian-Ukranian who has strong ties to the community and is often consulted on various aspects. Surely, that should have actually meant a much better chance of identifying the culprits? Or maybe that’s one reason why the culprits haven’t been identified? Yes, I am speculating.
There is a site put up by family/friends with information on what happened. You also have the opportunity to donate–and I encourage everyone to do so. Please don’t think that there will be others who will take this up. This responsibility falls to US to help one of our OWN.
Google Video of Vigil held in Sacramento: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-10598370163019630&pr=goog-sl
website for more information, articles, and donations: http://www.satendar.com
From one of the articles on the site:
Florin Ciuriuc, a former executive director of the Slavic Community Center of Sacramento, said he was disturbed but not surprised to hear of the attack at Lake Natoma.
Ciuriuc said he was among those leading anti-gay protests a few years back but that he stopped participating as the movement became more menacing.
“I saw that people were hungry for violence, for blood; different ideas where we have to be aggressive, where we have to scream,” he said. “I don’t want people from my community killing each other or other people because they are getting aggressive.”
Viktor Chernyetsky, administrator of Bethany Slavic Missionary Church, strongly disagreed with Ciuriuc’s assessment. Chernyetsky said Slavic leaders teach homosexuality is a sin, but do not support physical violence.
“You can express your view legally. You can go to the Capitol. You can put up signs,” Chernyetsky said. “But to resort to physical violence, we are strongly against this.”
****Complete BULLSHYT… how do you teach people to hate and then ask them to draw the line short of violence?
More info in today’s Sacramento Bee: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/278352.html
Then again, the LGBT community has yet to declare a general strike… the LGBT lobby is much stronger, but the potential grassroots power of immigrants is just massive.
Amen to that. Isn’t it amazing how when an incident like this occurs, or when some right-wing talk show host throws racial slurs around, they’re all about free speech, but when protesting students or union workers are shut down, arrested and beaten it’s suddenly not as important? (Or for that matter when it comes to only a few megacorporations owning the media?)
****Complete BULLSHYT… how do you teach people to hate and then ask them to draw the line short of violence?<
It seems like there’s a direct parallel between this and the way that the American Family Association encouraged its members to protest the Hindu prayer in Congress last week, don’t you think?
calm down krish. you can believe something is morally wrong and even horrible and not turn violent. It’s why (thank goodness) every anti abortion protestor hasn’t started bombing clinics and why every anti war protestor isn’t suddenly going to shoot a veteran (like some nutball did on july 4th). You’re hate and jump to stereotype is pretty disturbing as it is.
Back to the story though. Apparently the HAF is trying to work on raising awareness this story around and SALDEF and CAIR have also both condemned it so I don’t think the indian community is ignoring the story.
Thanks for the article umair. It’s shocking that the cops haven’t brought in anybody yet apparently and that they’re now trying to interview people who were at the area. Apparently there were tons of witnesses. I really hope that comment #10 is wrong because I’m tired of people protecting their own—these guys need to be strung up and thrown out by their own community—nobody should protect murderers.
Why did it take ONE HOUR to respond?
Uhh moron police, weren’t there enough witnesses on the scene??? How about tracking all REd Mitsubishis registered in the area to Russian sounding names?
And that’s the best description of the vehicles the Indian guy’s cowardly friends could come up with? A dark green sedan? This was no surprise attack. I sure hope I don’t have such friends if I ever get attacked.
this little piggie built his house out of straw
and yeah. right wing talking heads saying something that ‘racially offensive’ is so comparable to this incident
i’m kind of surprised that they evidently haven’t given better info. however, maybe they were drunk or something–i imagine having what should have been a fun night out on july 4th would involve some booze–there were supposedly a lot of other witnesses though
I am tracking the Satendar Singh story closely for a number of reasons: I live in Sacramento, am gay, despise hate crime and host a modest web site for gay Sacramento.
This is the best lively discussion of the events on the Internet. And there are many discussions on this topic. News sites now allow comments and this story has elicited many. The major news stories for Satendar Singh have been at Sacramento’s newspaper http://www.sacbee.com and the local tv stations news10.net, kcra.com, and cbs13.com
Many have drawn a cause/effect from the local Russian/slavic/Ukraine Fundamental/Evangical/Baptist/Pentacostal churches groups that have been protesting loudly and virulently the last 2 years anything gay in Sacramento: gay pride, day of silence, gay legislation at the capitol (state capitol Sacramento, California). Many are waiting for the second shoe to drop that the murders belong to the churches/were inspired by the churches.
The perpetrators have not been caught yet 17 days later as of this post. This was a hate crime. This group attacked a person because of his sexuality, race, color, religion. Killed him in a public place – a picnic area at a State Park – in broad daylight on a Sunday evening, near a major american metropolitan city. This is my America, my city, my Matthew Shepard. This is wrong. This cannot fade away.
At my web site are the links I collect to document the story. http://www.outsacramento.com
The local newspaper sacbee.com has coverage (free subscription required)
First story: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/256068.html
Dies: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/259354.html
911 call: http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/278352.html
Mark
(pardon my spelling & grammar, can’t find the check button)
I wouldn’t classify this as a hate crime.
The Russian youths didn’t know he was he wasn’t gay, and I doubt they meant to kill him when they beat him up. It is natural for straight males to dislike anything gay, so in this case the accused beat up a guy who they thought was gay. May be Singh shoud have learned to defend himself, obviously his friends didn’t help him.
wow.
You doubt they meant to kill him when they beat him up? Why didn’t you say so–they shouldn’t even press charges. I mean, nobody intends to seriously hurt somebody else when they sucker punch somebody with brass knuckles. It might not be premeditated murder, but you can bet these guys will at least get charged with manslaughter and assault at minimum. Just desserts isn’t a meaningless phrase.
I tend to agree its possible that they may have just been insulting him with gay epithets for machoism reasons but that does excuse the fact they killed him.
As for Singh learning to defend himself, man–do you seriously believed he caused his own death because of his inability to defend himself. Its hard to defend yourself from a sucker punch with brass knuckles. Then again, rape victims shouldn’t dress so promiscuously right if they haven’t taken a self defense class right, because they’re basically inviting violation of their bodies?
LK1–are you a moron, or do you just pretend to be one in online forums? You didn’t read the articles, ’cause you would know that racial along with homophobic epithets were used.
I’ve said there are many angles to look at this case. Don’t you guys think it’s odd that it’s Russian immigrants, the bulk of whom arrived after the 90s, who are the perpetrators of this crime? The point that I’m trying to make is… well, as a 1.5er in America, I don’t feel I have a ‘stake’ to pass judgment on anyone here, ’cause I havne’t been here long enough. Can these Russian guys can come in and coopt white racism that easily? Did they learn this hatred in their country or did they learn it here?
Of course, we could be reading too much into this… I mean, it doesn’t take a ideology of hatred to spark violence… many times, good ol’ budweiser can do the trick.
And another thing. So much is made about Muslims in America creating enclaves of hatred. Well, it should be increasingly clear to us that this problem goes far beyond Islam. In America, right now, we are sitting back and watching these pockets of right-wing, ethno-nationalist, and chauvanist movements take root.
I think it’s the immigrant experience–leaves people very vulnerable to these black/white ideologies that seem to be the basis for fomenting hatred.
I whole-heartedly join Mark in applauding this forum for having the most productive discussion around.
Mark, I am also tracking this story as a gay, south asian american born and raised in california. Our community cannot afford to let this go.
I work in news and will be pushing for coverage. Please send the story around however you can.
LK1 is one reason why we probably need registration here for users. We can probably reduce hit and run cowardly comments. I am for free speech, however moronic, as long as someone can stand by those comments.
woops. i meant the fact this may have not been a hate crime doesn’t excuse the slaughter of Satender.
I really don’t see why you’re trying to make this a political issue Krish–conflating this attack and isolated ones that span fundamentalist religious groups and/or immigrant communities aren’t necessarily comparable to some of the problems in Muslim communities–particularly in England where it seems violence is advocated in at least some mosques. Regardless, it is likely a case of some bad apples in all the previous cases, but the relevance of these groups is trying to break their tendency to not speak out against the violent ones in their communities, something that hopefully will not be an issue in this case.
And good luck to Amita and Mark, it looks like the press will be the only way the public will get more facts and resolution in this case-so hopefully you can serve to calm some of the anger and fear that this tragedy has caused in a number of communities.
They learned it back home. Forget about Chechens and the conflict associated with them….Russians refer to swarthy Armenians & Georgians as “blacks”. And Indian businessmen & students have been killed by Russian crowds in race related attacks. I hear St. Petersburg is particularly bad.
Dude, what are you trying to say? Only Muslims are capable of fundamentalist violence? I’m not sure I understand and I’d like to give you the benefit of the doubt.
There have been some articles coming out after this incident (and several, before) that talked about the VOCAL anti-gay stance of the Russian churches in the Sacramento area.
you’re foaming right now krish. calm down.
I’m not saying that only muslims are capable of fundamentalist violence–history, current events and a number of other things contradict that. However, the evolution of fundamentalism within certain religions may be at different points and right now violence encouraged in mosques in UK is a problem. If you’ve heard of documented widespread violence encouraged in holy places right now in other religions in a particular area then i’m willing to concede that you can equate the two situations. However, at present I don’t see that this situation or what you perceive as a right wing ethnocentric religious incitement to violence exists in the same way as exists in say england or pakistan.
There’s a difference between a direct exhortation to violence and intolerance.
Sacramento, California, United States of America, July 1, 2007: (As Neale said)
Person killed after “racial and homophobic names” (http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/256068.html)
America:
All men are created equal.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Seperation of church and state.
Why did this murder happen? Ignorance, hate, religion? Maybe they knew each other? Drugs or alcohol?
I hope everyone (ce blast, krish, pravin) is just as enraged when the inevitable brown NRA member pops up and says, “oh, he should have owned a gun–maybe then he could have survived, ” or some equivalent nonsense.
i’m thinking of you, Mr. Haricharran.
The Russian youths didn’t know he was he wasn’t gay, and I doubt they meant to kill him when they beat him up. It is natural for straight males to dislike anything gay, so in this case the accused beat up a guy who they thought was gay. May be Singh shoud have learned to defend himself, obviously his friends didn’t help him.
WTF? Even if they “only” meant to beat him up, THAT IS STILL A HATE CRIME.
I really hope you are just trolling.
What a sad story.
I found this line from the latest SALDEF press release to be especially depressing:
“We strongly condemn this act of violence. Such hate has no place in this country [DJDP note: Or any place, for that matter],” said SALDEF Volunteer Attorney Neilinder Singh. “Sadder still, Satendar Singh had lived peacefully in the US since he was 19, only to have his life ended around the Fourth of July, when we celebrate the freedoms and principles of inclusion that this country was founded upon.” [link]
More depressing still is the article louiecypher linked to:
Anyone know if any members from within community the attackers are a part of have made a statement regarding their alleged involvement in this heinous crime? Or are they going to carry on preaching their hate and tacitly encouraging violence against those they deem to be deserving?
I’m with Pravin on this one, and I would strongly encourage people not to respond to or address LK1. He has trolled on other hate crime posts and his rhetoric is always the same — blame the victim, it wasn’t a hate crime, hatred and gross violence are “natural,” why didn’t the pansy coward (read: victim) stand up for himself? –, and other such ridiculous vitriolic word vomit.
Mark and Amita, I’m so glad to hear that you two are doing the work you’re doing.
Krish***, I understand where you’re coming from (I don’t think you’re foaming, coincidentally — krish, or whomever the second commentator was, perhaps you could take the personal attacks down a notch?). I think it would be dangerous to paint an entire community with a broad brush, but it is not ahistoric or inappropriate to identify that within the former USSR there has been a historically grotesque abuse of LGBT individuals (real and perceived). I’m with DJ, I want to know what the Russian community in Sacramento is doing. Was this an isolated incident, or is this a tacitly accepted way to behave?
I don’t have time to read all the comments just now, but I’ve noticed the references to the Russian fundamentalist Christian community in the Sacto area: LA Times (search the archives) did a lengthy article about how large groups of Russian fundamendalists (ironically, to me, mostly emigres) regularly picket the state Capitol in Sacramento against various “liberal” issues including gay rights. It mentioned some tensions, but it looks like the atmosphere there finally resulted in a tragedy. Glad some have pointed out that Singh’s actual orientation is irrelevant if the reason he was attacked was based on his perceived orientation by the thugs.
IN REGARDS TO THE GETAWAY VEHICLES:
To my knowledge the vehicles in which the suspects fled were a RED MITSUBISHI and a GREEN SEDAN. That probably doesn’t really help the investigation all that much. Though what could potentially help is if the exact make and models of the cars were to be identified.
TO THAT END:
The witnesses might be able to identify the make of the vehicles through online auto shops like http://www.autotrader.com. They have a massive collection of used vehicles for sale. More importantly these vehicles also have a bunch of pictures attached to them from various angles, and they can be searched by make and color (to figure out the MODEL-e.g. Red Mitsubishi 3000GT or Green Honda Accord). If someone could please forward this info to all parties involved it may help to uncover some pertinent information.
Also the sticker on the rear windshield was a DMV inspection sticker. I don’t know what the number 7 signifies, but I’m sure someone at the DMV does.
And finally here is an example of what I was talking about:
IN REGARDS TO THE GETAWAY VEHICLES:
To my knowledge the vehicles in which the suspects fled were a RED MITSUBISHI and a GREEN SEDAN. That probably doesn’t really help the investigation all that much. Though what could potentially help is if the exact make and models of the cars were to be identified.
TO THAT END:
The witnesses might be able to identify the make of the vehicles through online auto shops like http://www.autotrader.com. They have a massive collection of used vehicles for sale. More importantly these vehicles also have a bunch of pictures attached to them from various angles, and they can be searched by make and color (to figure out the MODEL-e.g. Red Mitsubishi LANCER or Green Honda ACCORD). If someone could please forward this info to all parties involved it may help to uncover some pertinent information.
Also the sticker on the rear windshield was a DMV inspection sticker. I don’t know what the number 7 signifies, but I’m sure someone at the DMV does.