- Monday, May 06, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
Just days after an Mexican-American woman was arrested after racially abusing a few Indian-American women in Texas, a similar incident has been reported again from the US and this time, it was an Indian-American man who was found being racially abused by a compatriot in the state of California.
On Wednesday (31), NBC News reported that a man named Krishna Jayaraman was verbally attacked by another called Tejinder Singh at a Taco Bell eatery in Grimmer Boulevard in Fremont, California, and the latter even called Jayaraman a “dirty Hindu” and “disgusting dog”. The incident reportedly happened on August 21.
Singh, who belongs to Union City in the Golden State, was charged on Monday (29) with a hate crime in violation of civil rights, assaulting and disturbing the peace by using offensive language, the Press Trust of India reported citing Fremont Police Department.
Singh was listed in charging documents as “Asian/Indian”, the report added.
It was reported that Jayaraman recorded the abuse, which lasted for more than eight minutes, on his phone. He captured the moment when Singh told him, “You’re disgusting, dog. You look nasty. Don’t come out in public like this again.”
He also called him a “dirty Hindu,” repeatedly using the N-word, and yelled “beef!” in Jayaraman’s face after learning that he didn’t eat meat. He also appeared to spit at Krishnan Jayaraman twice in the video.
Singh was also heard saying: “…this ain’t India! You…India up, and now you’re…America up.”
Jayaraman said he was scared by the incident and was upset by the fact that the person who abused him 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 told Singh. “What do you want? He said you know you Hindus are a shame, disgusting. Then he spat on me,” KTLA.com website reported.
He said that’s when he and a restaurant employee called Fremont Police. He added that the man continued yelling for more than eight minutes.
Fremont Police are still investigating the incident.
Krishnan 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.
Last week, four Indian-American women were racially abused by a Mexican-American woman in Texas who accused them of ruining America and said they should “go back to India”.
