Mutineer Umair alerts us to a case of lottery fraud in Sacramento, via our news tab. Apparently, a cashier at a Roseville-area 7-11 tried to keep a winning “Mega Million” ticket for herself. Here’s the backstory:
…the customer whose ticket was stolen was unaware he’d won more than half a million dollars when he went to the store Aug. 16.
The man, who officials said has a language barrier, purchased five sets of numbers at the 7-Eleven market at 1900 Douglas Blvd. two days earlier and had used his own numbers to play.
He handed his winning ticket to the clerk to run through a validation machine to determine the amount won, Currier said.
However, after running the ticket, Kaur told the man, “You’ve won four dollars,” and paid him that amount, Currier said. The attorney said Kaur kept the winning ticket, apparently with designs to cash it later.
Currier said that in the ensuing days, the victim saw news reports about the prize money being unclaimed and that the winning ticket had been purchased at the 7-Eleven in Roseville.
On Tuesday, the man called the lottery office, which referred his complaint to its security and law enforcement division.
Working with Roseville police, the lottery agents, who are sworn peace officers, went to the store to investigate, Currier said. [SacBee]
Yeah, I bolded that last bit because I had no idea that lottery agents are sworn peace officers!
Getting back to the news and the tip which introduced me to it: the link Umair left was for a local television station, whose story had “comments” enabled, much like a blog. I read the entire thread, which at this point includes 40 comments. My, my…what a stunning display of hate. Some of the best remarks follow, for your enragement and edification.
BlueBlood, in Charlotte, NC pithily said:
one way ticket to the border
BOOMER of Tampa, FL charmingly declared:
DEPORT THAT 3RD WORLD TRASH. SHE SHOULD BE GLAD IT WASN’T ME SHE TRIED TO DE-FRAUD, SHE’D BE IN INTENSIVE CARE TONIGHT.
Booboo of Sikeston, MO has some interesting views:
Sorry, but the name sounds Hindi, and I am not surprised. Every time a hotel Patel or shop clerk has tried to rip me off to my face it was an Asian Indian. Muslims might kill you but won’t rip you off….
Mike H of Sacramento, CA (finally! A local!) responded thusly:
this 7-11 clerk doesnt LOOK foreign…she IS foreign…whens the last time u walked into a 7-11 and the clerk had less than 12 letters in their name?
Never mind that there have been Sikhs in North America for generations, right?
I Hate Whiners of Los Angeles, CA brilliantly articulates:
You’re an idiot !
First off she middle eastern……now a days = no good.
Secondly, she’s a scumbag.
And finally, quit sticking up for your pals.
Bottom line, she’s a thief, liar and a plain no good “human”.
Then, THIS appositely-handled genius from Elk Grove, CA , What_The, pipes up:
Actually, India, until recent years, was always considered to be the MidEast. Nowadays, they are more popularly associated with SouthEast Asia. That doesn’t change their history, though.
Take heart, my brownies. Some humans valiantly tried to fight the good fight…
Lana of Sacramento, CA:
She is not Middle Eastern. Go study geography before you make such accusations against people.
Disbelief from Japan is just too sensible:
I can’t believe how many people are so quick to jump on the nationality/ethnicity issue. It would hardly be productive to call commenters like Booboo (#19), Boomer (#16), or stupid (#1) dumb racist honkies. Nor would it be productive to call people like The Silence (#15) or wow (#6) granola-munching tree-hugging hippies. Let’s not forget that every country has jails, and the prison system in the US incarcerates people of various ethnic backgrounds and of different nationalities.
Unless you are a Native American, you too are a “dirty foreigner”.
Denver, Colorado’s The Silence tried to inject reason, too:
Oh my gosh! How do you even know she’s not an American? She could still speak with an accent even if she’s lived in the country all of her life. What she did was VERY stupid. She can post bond for $55000 because in most states, you only have to pay a bondsman 10% of the total. So someone would have had to put up $5,500 to get her out. Yes expensive, but no that expensive if someone has good credit cards, 2nd mortgage, etc.,
And finally, Listen to all the hate, of Normal, IL, said:
To the ones so ready to deport … What would be your answer to a 4th generation American white guy/girl that did the same thing? Just jail or violence, eh? Look foreign, and it’s time to deport. Stupid. [News10 and News10]
I’m disturbed at how many of the people who chose to comment, did so from way beyond Sacramento (I’ve seen that elsewhere, SFGate.com, most notably…wtf is up with that? Do they troll for far-flung opportunities to show off bigotry? Busy life they must lead…). But, I’m also heartened by those who stepped up to do the futile– disabuse idiots of their ideas.
The commenter I quoted above, from Illinois, is right– there is an obvious double standard.
Donald Currier, the lottery’s chief legal counsel, said it was the second time in two years that a retail clerk had been arrested for allegedly stealing a winning ticket. [SacBee]
…yes, and I wonder if people wanted to send THAT criminal back to wherever, or if they generalized about an entire culture, because of a single, shady clerk’s behavior. News10 chose to use the title, “There’s a Lesson Here“, which made me uncomfortable– my spider sense was tingling. I’m sure they meant to instill a sense of caution in the public, but it feels uglier than that…but maybe that’s just me. After reading fecal matter in the comments section.
Rajinder Kaur, 40, is free on $50,000 bail after her arrest Tuesday on grand theft…
The ticket owner’s name is being withheld until the lottery completes its investigation, Johnston said. [News10]
Indians. Can’t trust ’em, can’t live without their incredibly vast contributions to this nation and her prosperity.
yeah. ive had more than a few people that wanted to deport me over the years. never mind im from the US.
note to self–no stops in Sac’to on way from SF to Tahoe. Those comments are scary!
The latest comment reads “THOSE KIND OF PEOPLE ARE HERE JUST TO SEE HOW MUCH THEY CAN STEAL FROM GOOD WHITE CHRISTIAN FOLKS. ” ( emphasis mine)
I like that : those kind = brown?Indian? Non -Christian?
Lets play a game: How much hate can you pack into one sentence?
how do get to the comments?
Puli, try either of these:
[News10 and News10]
I followed the link that Anna had in her post.Try this one
thanks. i think i cant really leave new york. i think the country outside of a few splotches is a h3llh0le.
scary scary. What hole did these people crawl out of?
Hey–I posted on TV site! (am visiting brother in VA)
Wow, I can’t believe they weren’t totally conflicted over thinking the guy “who …has a language barrier” deserved what he got for not speaking English.
I KNOW!!
It’s like their hatred for whom they saw in the photo eclipsed their understanding of that crucial detail, assuming that the “language barrier” in this instance is a lack of English expertise. When one foreigner commits a crime against another, however does a bigot choose against whom to rail??
not surprised, but still saddened. disbelief from japan had the best retort, though – not a single white person can lay claim to this land as a native, and, even though it cannot be said in other predominantly white countries, it can be said here. also, wtf kind of american values are they upholding if equality for all is not an inherent belief for them? in that regard, foreigners can be far more american in their (political) values. i hate that native-borns are considered inherently more american, when immigrants often come to this country esp. for the political freedoms it affords, and in which they believe.
Rob@2, Tahoe isn’t heaven either anymore : http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/338310.html
13 · zuni
Yikes!!
All said and done, I’m glad she didn’t get away with it.
I am puzzled as to why Anna decided to write this post. Does it matter what 5 anonymous people write in a comment box? We know they exist, and with racism comes utter ignorance. Surely, there are more interesting things to talk about…
I think we all are.
It’s disheartening though, to see how quickly people play the “furriners/terrorists/Shylock/third world/illegal immigrant” cards. Fine, she’s probably guilty. But that’s not what bothers me– I’m sick of how this sort of racism is acceptable. If it’s someone white or black who does the same crime, no one tells them where to go or advocates that they be deported. We’re back to the heartbreaking reality of how we’re not perceived as fully American, how we are still outside of society. It’s like the first comment on this post; you could be a born American citizen and someone will still spit something your way about getting “deported”. Unacceptable. Brown = American, too.
Anna, you write my favorite articles here, but going to the comments section of a site for your story is a bit ignorant. There’s a line from Walden by Thoreau, something to the effect of for every thousand people hacking at the branches of evil, there’s one hacking at the root…
The comments section in that case is the fringe, in my opinion. It’s like O’Reilly vs. Markos. The sensible people stay out of ‘discussions’ like those in the comments because they aren’t worth the time. Is it hate or people trying to rile others up for fun? It’s bit of both. It probably wouldn’t take too long to find something venomous — albeit not that venomous, thankfully, you moderate here — in one of the comment sections on this site.
from one of the ‘h3llh0les’ outside New York, coincidentally, not too far from Normal, -G
And I am puzzled by your comment.
Yes. What matters more is when one of our readers posts a story on our news tab. I spent two hours reading, researching, writing and formatting this post. What interested me most were the reactions, because I predicted them and my predictions were confirmed to be true. I’m allowed to find that interesting and write for others who would agree.
This is but one post on a blog with a few thousand. We talk about anything and everything. Surely there are more interesting things to comment about, besides your being puzzled by my choice of topics.
Bottom line– you may not find this post-worthy, but a few hundred readers and lurkers might. What about them? 🙂
If you’re not interested that’s fine, nobody is saying that you should be.
As for the post, you might know that there are racist idiots out there, but you would be surprised how often readers leave comments that they never encounter racism and they have a hard time believing it exists.
Now, we can’t tell based on some anonymous comments how many racists there are, it’s not a representative survey. However, it does remind us that racism exists, and it also tells us something about the discourse that people feel it is permissible to use.
Don’t you think it’s noteworthy that instead of saying “we’re glad she got caught” they thought it was legitimate to spew venom about foreigners and their only problem was which foreigner to hate more? Anna’s laid out what she found striking about the post, you can agree or disagree as you see fit.
These comments seem “pani kam” if you see some at rediff. They had to close the Haneef related articles to comments because of the profanity against religion. When you are anonymous, u can write any sh*t to extremes.
Anna, nice post, very worthy in my opinion, and the outrage is justified. I think it opens people’s eyes to the real extent of bigotry and ‘otherizing discourses’ that are actually out there. While we correctly condemn bigotry and xenophobia, we often forget that these are natural human reactions that continuously need to be kept under control at both individual and society-wide levels, through constant (and perpetual) awareness raising.
And people likely to be affected (i.e., us) need to be reminded, that it is out there, and that we ought to watch out, as well as take conscious everyday steps not to perpetrate it on others. And we should also realize that the ideal of being fully accepted, while nice to aim for and work toward, and legitimate to expect, is unlikely to really arrive. And I would say in support of this, that this sort of post-facto xenophobic otherization, regardless of the facts, does happen to blacks and Hispanics too, though in different ways; while I would agree that East Asians seem to avoid it. (I recognize that other opinions on this may also validly be held). None of which takes away from the value of this post, though. And thank you again.
I think Anna always does an excellent job of making us aware of the current events and this post is no exception! Thank God for people like Anna and forums like Sepia Mutiny. Otherwise, I probably would have no idea of some of the very important and relevant issues. People must be well informed of what’s happening or put up with the consequences of ignorance (which really isn’t bliss.)
Regarding Ms. Kaur, she is not really a threat to society and just did one stupid mistake (at least one that we know of). Her ethnicity has nothing to do with her misjudgement. People from her community are the hardest working , have the most honesty and are very smart too. So many winning lottery tickets have been sold by people of all races and this is the first case ever (again, that I know of. If I am wrong, please enlighten me.) of a clerk trying to keep it for themselves.
Oops. I guess this is the 2nd time a clerk tried to steal a winning lottery ticket.
We do get comfortable. We stupidly assume that because we were born here, that we have lived here and contribute to this society as much anyone else (and in varying degrees as any other group), or because we don’t live in areas with a prominent Skinhead population that we have the luxury of forgetting that racism exists. This summer, I was with a group of friends – most of us were South Asian (an “aviyal” crew). With us was my brother, a bearded and turbanned Sikh, and his big tall white fraternity brother. As we walked by the New Brunswick train station, we encountered a group of guys fresh from a Mets game. They started making remarks at my brother. “You gonna blow something up?” “Dothead.” (Frankly, dothead is so 1987, and it doesn’t even make sense if you’re trying to insult a Sikh man.) “I like your hat.” etc. More racist remarks, shouting, even spitting ensued. All of the men in our group, and most of us women were ready to throw down, but the @$$holes were waiting for us to throw the first blow. We were 8 or 9, and they were 3 – but they still had the b@lls to come at us. They followed us, and kept coming at us aggressively. At some point, we finally got them to back down. But it was a $hitty thing to happen.
One of the things that unnerved us and angered us most about the incident that it took place in New Brunswick – New Brunswick is like my home. We went to college there, lived there for 4 years, and felt so comfortable there that we still hang out downtown when we want to spend time together. It just affirmed that racism does exist, and it knows how to travel. It bugs me when people say we should get over it, or that it doesn’t matter. I don’t believe we should walk around being paranoid or assume every white person secretly harbors some sort of hatred for anyone non-white or “foreign”. But in a situation like this where the person’s race had nothing to do with the incident, and people turned it into a race-issue, it matters, it’s not right, and it’s not ok.
Good grief. What do you expect when you read comments? I can’t think of anything more pointless than paying internet comments any mind.
Um… wait a sec…
There is no “south asian caste system”. Effing lame-o.
Note to SM Intern: Um… Can you handle #26? Just makes me feel not right inside.
I stand by what I posted, “ignorant”, or not. 🙂 Thanks for the kind words, Gora cubed.
I write about what moves me. My choice of subjects has always been genuine and that’s why I do this– if someone assigned a story to me, I’d probably freeze or balk; that’s why I’m not a journalist. When a topic actually moves or upsets me– that’s when I write. That’s all I know how to write. I moderated the news tab, saw the tip, read the article…didn’t raise an eyebrow until I saw the comments. And then I read them and I got upset. No one gets to invalidate my reaction, and if people don’t think that I should post these things, then I hope they realize that they are advocating that I not post at all, since that’s how I blog (not that I am accusing anyone of silencing me).
I cannot easily dismiss anonymous abuse spewed via comments or random bigotry on news sites. Frankly, I hope I never get that used to it. I hope that I am never oblivious to what is very real and potentially dangerous. Reason it away however you like, by saying “it’s the fringe” or “just ignore it”, but I cannot ignore what bothers me and it doesn’t seem like I ought to, since others here are similarly troubled, and they deserve a space for their reactions, just like you and I do.
Anna, Take heart, the vast majority of ‘wythe’ Americans do not think this way about us (Desis). I never experienced this while in the military. Once an officer was diciplined for talking down to me even though I deserved it.
In the civilian world people assume I am a doctor or some sort of scientist. (I am an IT guy). I am treated with respect every where I go and frequently with friendlyness. PIOs have a very positive imsge in the USA. I have been to Macon County GA and South Carolina. The people there have all been nice to me. There are stupid people in every country, not just the homogenous ones.
This woman will be judged as a thief.
TO: SM intern re #26 maybe R rated graffiti but its cool with me.
sadly, these types of comments are prevalent at newspaper and tv station websites every time a story is run relating to indians/arabs.
what is especially disturbing is that these people would never spout off their comments in person – only behind the veil and anonymity of the internet. if anything, it’s an indication of the true sentiments of a helluva lot of people out there…..and we get to face them every day. f*cking awesome. and wholly depressing.
Hm, I seem to remember, not too long ago, a stringer at MSNBC reading a thread on sepiamutiny after the VT massacre and concluding that a backlash against Korean-Ams was imminent.
http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/004355.html
I think we might bear in mind that, SM aside, most talkboards represent the opinions of very marginal people.
And by the way, aren’t the comments on this thread that assume the News10 bigots are white, displaying a kind a prejudice?
I don’t know that it is analogous.
Noticing that nearly every desi-related news story on such sites becomes an opportunity to be xenophobic is not the same as one random comment which was allowed to stay, in order to become a teaching moment. It was condemned unanimously. Was there a rash of anti-Korean sentiment on other desi blogs? No.
Isn’t it sad that more effort seems to have been put into nabbing this woman by authorities than the killer of Satendar Singh? May not be the same jurisdiction. But same region.
Unfortunately, Anna, offensive comments are all over the Internet and not just against desis. We just have to accept it and not give the commenters any more attention than they deserve. While many media outlets may claim that they’re concerned about offensive comments, it’s not really in their interest to do something about it (aside from appearances), especially since they’re not legally liable and actually get more traffic as a result of it. The Indianapolis Star’s editor recently wrote about “nasty online chatter,” mentioning that the paper’s website gets 100,000 comments a month, which receive 3 million page views. I wonder how much advertising revenue they bring in.
The best thing we can do is ignore these anonymous/fringe commenters. Now if a public figure says something racist (macaca), that’s another story.
I do not care about the comments. The story of this piece is the Indian woman who I agree deserves to be deported after serving some jail time.
Just want to add that this type of ticket-stealing is not uncommon. Canada’s CBC did a report on it a year or so ago. They found that “in the past seven years Ontario clerks and retailers have claimed lottery victories nearly 200 times, a statistical anomaly according to one expert.”
I think outrage is a little misplaced. Once in a while I look at comments on Rediff and Bahrat-Rakshik.com and the language used for Indian Muslims and Pakistanis is whole lot stronger, racist and demeaning than used in couple of comments on http://www.topix.net/forum/source/kxtv/T0I4OJ75JTN2I3GAV.
I have yet to see a comment on an Indian site where Pakistanis are not referred as Pakis and choice words are not used for Indian Muslims.
I am not talking about just couple of comments, I am talking about pretty much every single poster using the kind of language that mutineers are objecting to here. Try this for some real racism…. http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewforum.php?f=1
40 · HP
sh!t–that is some bad stuff– but, I’ll go out on a limb and say that–as an AbD–I worry more about the stuff here–there’s a reason my parents left the Desh, after all….
And I think your point is very misplaced. Stupidity on Rediff isn’t going to affect the readers of this America-based blog anywhere near as much as comments about desis which are left on American news sites, especially in a supposedly-progressive state like California. Indians hate Pakistanis. Fine, we get it. But we don’t live in either of those countries. We live here. Many of us were born here. Why shouldn’t we have outrage over perceptions that we don’t belong?
Besides that’s like saying, “this murder is nothing, you should see how this guy got killed over there.” Who gives a fuck? At the end of it all, someone is dead.
Captain Obvious
And why not? The point was that there are every kind of people in a society. There are some in the US too but you will hardly find a site in the US where people consistently post against the people from the subcontinent.
btw, most of the posters on those two sites and many others sites apparently live and post from the US.
I assume this is why Canadian media is now full of government ads reminding people to sign their lottery tickets before redeeming them. Do US states have a similar protection mechanism in place?
She should jumped the country and they would have problem getting her or the money. Just like a newspaper agents employee in oz did, he went to Indonesia.
Don’t need to go over-dramatic on me, Anna. I enjoy many of your posts. However, I feel that a sense of balance needs to be given. What was the purpose of this post? To show that there are racists out there who jump at any opportunity to manifest their hate anonymously? That they are incredibly ignorant about geography? I can understand why you would be upset when reading such comments, but you are also assuming that the majority of people feel this way.
scary scary. What hole did these people crawl out of?
America.
Runa, That comment you found
made me laugh actually, frightening as it is.
If memory serves me correctly, Jesus was born in the Middle East, and I’m pretty sure he was…what’s the word…ah yes…brown.
Indian shopkeepers will behave the same, be it India or somewhere else.
Really? That’s your explanation? That a certain Indian shopkeeper who tried to steal a lottery ticket is representative of all Indian shopkeepers everywhere? I bow down to your breathtaking insight.
Possibly. But i’m sure that those people assuming that the commenters are white, would be just as quick to denounce such comments if they came from non-white commenters.
Personally, I’ll swing the rhetorical fist at anyone.