Krishnan Jayaraman was verbally attacked by 37-year-old Tejinder Singh in the Taco Bell at Grimmer Boulevard in Fremont, California on August 21, NBC News reported on Wednesday
Krishnan Jayaraman was verbally attacked by 37-year-old Tejinder Singh in the Taco Bell at Grimmer Boulevard in Fremont, California on August 21, according to a NBC News report on August 31.
An Indian-American man was racially abused by another Indian-American in California. He shouted racist slurs that Jayaram was a “dirty Hindu” and a “disgusting dog”. The attack came after a few days after a woman indulged in a hate crime against four Indian women in Texas.
Krishnan Jayaraman was verbally attacked by 37-year-old Tejinder Singh in the Taco Bell at Grimmer Boulevard in Fremont, California on August 21, NBC News reported on Wednesday.
Tejinder Singh, of Union City, was charged with a hate crime in violation of civil rights, assault and disturbing the peace by offensive language, the Fremont Police Department said.
Tejinder Singh was listed in charging documents as “Asian/Indian,” the report said.
Krishnan Jayaraman recorded the tirade, which lasted over eight minutes, on his phone, capturing the moment Tejinder Singh told him: “You’re disgusting, dog. You look nasty. Don’t come out in public like this again.” Tejinder called him a “dirty Hindu”, and repeatedly used the N-word, insinuated that Krishnan Jayaraman didn’t eat meat and yelled “beef!” in his face. He appeared to spit at Krishnan Jayaraman twice in the video.
At one point Tejinder Singh was seen saying: “…this ain’t India! You…India up, and now you’re…America up,” the report said.
Police Chief Sean Washington wrote: “We take hate incidents and hate crimes seriously, and understand the significant impact they have on our community. These incidents are despicable. We are here to protect all community members, regardless of their gender, race, nationality, religion, and other differences.”
Jayaraman said he was frightened by the incident and was even more upset to learn later that the perpetrator was also Indian. “I was scared, to be honest with you. I was infuriated on the one hand, but I was scared that what if this guy becomes too belligerent and then comes after me?” he told NBC Bay Area.
“I’m not here to pick a fight with you,” Jayaraman said. “What do you want? He said you know you Hindus are a shame, disgusting. Then he spat on me,” KTLA.com website reported.
Krishnan Jayaraman said that was when he and a restaurant employee called Fremont police. Jayaraman’s video ended with Fremont police officers arriving, abc7news.com reported.
The police chief later addressed the community on social media. Police Chief Sean Washington wrote: “We take hate incidents and hate crimes seriously, and understand the significant impact they have on our community. These incidents are despicable. We are here to protect all community members, regardless of their gender, race, nationality, religion, and other differences.” “We would like to urge the community to be respectful of each other and to immediately report any circumstances such as this that, upon investigation, may rise to the level of a crime. In the event of a hate crime, we will devote all available resources to follow up and investigate. Fremont is one of the nation’s most diverse communities, and we are thankful for the contributions of community members from different cultures and backgrounds,” the statement said.
*********************************************************************
Readers
These are extraordinary times. All of us have to rely on high-impact, trustworthy journalism. And this is especially true of the Indian Diaspora. Members of the Indian community overseas cannot be fed with inaccurate news.
Pravasi Samwad is a venture that has no shareholders. It is the result of an impassioned initiative of a handful of Indian journalists spread around the world. We have taken the small step forward with the pledge to provide news with accuracy, free from political and commercial influence. Our aim is to keep you, our readers, informed about developments at ‘home’ and across the world that affect you.
Please help us to keep our journalism independent and free.
In these difficult times, to run a news website requires finances. While every contribution, big or small, will makes a difference, we request our readers to put us in touch with advertisers worldwide. It will be a great help.
For more information: pravasisamwad00@gmail.com