Accidental Blogger

We are currently in an endless loop of outrage over racially charged stories in the MSM -the flap over Don Imus’ nasty crack about the Rutgers women’s basketball team and the more chilling Duke Lacrosse team’s case involving false accusations of rape. Here is a relatively obscure incident  involving blatant racism mixed with patriotic fervor and police brutality which has so far not been reported in the major media. (via Gene Expression).

Sikhs are not Arabs although technically an Arab could become a Sikh since Sikhism is a religion, not a race. The overwhelming number of Sikhs are in fact from the northern region of India. If this story is true, the pertinent question to ask however, is what does an immigrant have to do for America … including serve in its wars, to not to have to hear, "Go back to your f*****g country?"

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 your f****** country before I kill you!”

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.

Note: So far the only sources of this story seem to be SALDEF (The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund) and south Asian bloggers who have used the SALDEF link as their referene. I will wait and see what else emerges, what the investigation will reveal and if it will be reported more widely in Chicago area papers and other media outlets.