Two men accused in the beating of Sacramento cab driver Harbhajan Singh in the early morning hours of November 28, 2010 were arraigned on Tuesday afternoon, charged with hate crimes, according to a release from the Yolo County DA’s Office.
Pedro Ramirez, 41, and Johnny Morales, 33 have been charged with felony assault and hate crimes, according to the release. In a statement released by Mr. Singh through his spokesperson Amar Shergill at the Shergill Law Firm in Sacramento, they say that the Felony Assault charge also includes a Great Bodily Injury enhancement, and there was an additional charge of criminal threats.
Early on Sunday morning, November 28th, Sacramento cab driver Harbhajan Singh was attacked by two of his passengers in a neighborhood in West Sacramento. According to eye witness reports, during the beating the two men repeatedly threatened to kill him, while calling Mr. Singh “Osama bin Laden.”
This assault left Mr. Singh with multiple facial lacerations requiring stitches, bone chips in his nose, eye injuries and bruising along his rib cage. Mr. Singh, a Sikh-American, believes that had he not gotten away, his attackers would have killed him.
Assemblymember Mariko Yamada, who represents much of Yolo County including West Sacramento, has long been an advocate of enforcing hate crime laws.
“Brutalizing any innocent individual is wrong, but to do so because of someone’s actual or perceived racial, ethnic, sexual, or religious membership is particularly heinous,” said Assemblymember Mariko Yamada. “These difficult times require that all community members remain vigilant and report any suspected bias-motivated crime to area law enforcement.”
Last week, she commended the quick work of authorities on this matter.
“I commend the partnership among local and federal authorities and community members in the quick apprehension of the suspects in this tragic hate crime,” said Assemblymember Yamada. “As we seek justice for Mr. Singh, let us turn the anger and hatred he experienced into an opportunity for community education and dialogue.”
The incident has also captured the attention of the Sikh and Muslim communities concerned about the rising level of hatred and violence against their communities.
“The swift action of law enforcement to label this a hate crime and use their resources to find and charge these individuals sends a clear message that hate will not be tolerated in our communities,” said CAIR – SV (Council on American-Islamic Relations – Sacramento Valley) Executive Director Basim Elkarra.
Mr. Elkarra added, “Recent trends of hate incidents targeting minorities including Sikh Americans take away from the true pluralism of this nation and only seek to further the divide between fellow Americans.”
“SALDEF (Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund) and the entire Sikh American community applaud the efforts of Chief Drummond and the entire West Sacramento Police Department for their diligence and quick response to this incident,” said SALDEF Managing Director Kavneet Singh.
“Attacks against an individual based on their religion, color, ethnicity or sexual orientation, are unfortunately all too common, and run counter to the fundamental freedoms and liberties that our nation was founded upon. All Americans must be free to practice their faith without fear. We urge the District Attorney to press for hate crime charges in the prosecution of these individuals thus sending a strong message that these types of incidents will not be tolerated,” he continued.
“The Asian Law Caucus applauds the swift and thorough investigation of the hateful attack against Mr. Singh,” said Veena Dubal, staff attorney at the Asian Law Caucus. “Over the past ten years, South Asian Americans, Arab Americans, and Muslim Americans have faced intolerable discrimination, profiling, and violence. We stand in unity to support Mr. Singh, his family, and all those who have fallen victim to this brutality.”
—David M. Greenwald reporting
I am sure this makes DA Reisig happy since he can charge two more Mexicans with crimes, perhaps he can connect them to a gang (I am sure they know someone in a gang, that makes them an associate) and then Reisig can use this incident to promote more fear so he can get his stupid gang injunction passed.
The crime is bad, I just dislike the fact that Reisig will use anyone’s misfortune to toot his own horn and benefit his personal agenda, [quote]”Justice and Truth be damned” is the motto of Yolo DA[/quote]
RR: “The crime is bad, I just dislike the fact that Reisig will use anyone’s misfortune to toot his own horn and benefit his personal agenda,…”
I think you are letting your own extreme bias get in the way of common sense. The DA is doing his job in charging the criminals with a hate crime…
ERM: lol, if you think Reisig is just going to charge this and do his job, I have a bridge in SF that I need to sell. Reisig is going to be all over this like a wild dog on a ham. He is going to play the media, he is going to have his boy Raven do misleading press releases, he would go for the Death Penalty if he could, not because he believes in anything or that he cares about the victim, only because he gets to feed his ego.
[quote]The old saying: “Empty has a lawyer’s heart” was made for the likes of DA Jeff Reisig. [/quote]
RR: “ERM: lol, if you think Reisig is just going to charge this and do his job, I have a bridge in SF that I need to sell. Reisig is going to be all over this like a wild dog on a ham. He is going to play the media, he is going to have his boy Raven do misleading press releases, he would go for the Death Penalty if he could, not because he believes in anything or that he cares about the victim, only because he gets to feed his ego.”
1) Would you prefer he not charge this as a hate crime?
2) Let’s see if he charges gang enhancements as you claim he will; let’s see if he issues misleading press releases as you claim he will; let’s see if he “plays the media” as you claim he will; let’s see if he is going to be “all over this like a dog on a ham”…
3) Your animous towards DA Reisig is so over the top, people will tend to tune out a lot of what you say, which is counterproductive if you have a real point to make…
ERM: People will tune me out and people can and will believe what they want. My points are very easy to see if you have been keeping up with Mr. Reisig since he took office. One scandal after another.
I think he is tearing down the trust in that office and destroying the system from within. If no one believes it, then that is a personal choice. Not my concern.
This is a democracy and the people will either act or not act, I can only hold true to my beliefs from my experiences with Mr. Reisig, his office, from conversations with his colleagues and from what I have seen.
If people want to ignore facts about Mr. Reisig, then they deserve what they get.
[quote]”One should not ignore what someone says based of the like or dislike of the person saying it.”[/quote]