- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
An elderly Sikh man, who has been living in Sutter County in California, US, for decades, did not give up fighting racial abuse by two local women and the alleged indifference shown by the police towards his plight and after taking a legal course, got justice in terms of a handsome monetary award.
Rouble Claire, 66, was racially targeted by a woman at a local grocery store called South Butte Market in May 2021. Identified as Sarah Holis, she was his neighbour and even falsely accused him of killing his pet with his car, The Sacramento Bee daily reported him as saying. It was also said that the accused woman tried to hit Claire with her vehicle by speeding towards him but changing direction at the last moment.
The ordeal did not end there. The same day, Claire experienced another racist attack when another woman, apparently linked to Holis, wrote the word “Sand n*gger” in chalk outside his residence and driveway. When he confronted her, she allegedly called him a “n*gger”.
Claire sought help from the police after both the incidents but his experience was far from satisfactory. While there was no response after the incident at the store, the police turned up after the second incident but according to Claire, a police officer named Vishaal Virk poured water from his own bottle on the racial slur written on the path without clicking a picture. The other officer, Earl Manion, allegedly asked Claire to avoid driving on his own street to avoid confrontation.
The police allegedly refused to reopen the case for many months after Claire asked them to probe further and they moved only after ‘The Sikh Coalition’, an NGO, stepped in.
The cops acted under pressure from the NGO and recommended charges against the accused but the Sutter County District Attorney’s Office declined to bring the charges, saying there was nearly a six-month delay between the incident and the charges.
It was then when Claire took on everybody. He brought a case against the police in May last year, accusing them of causing initial delays. He also filed a case against Sutter County and the woman who abused him in the store. His lawyers later found that the county had failed to follow the state laws with regard to the law-keepers’ hate-crime policy.
“I have been subject to threats, harassment, and racial slurs – yet almost a full year later, no one has been held accountable,” Claire had said last May.
“For months, after immediately reporting these hateful acts, I sat in silence waiting for action that never came. I did not want to have to take legal action against anyone, but I believe that this failure of justice is unacceptable: no one in our community should have to face this kind of hate and bigotry.”
But Claire had the last laugh when a court ruled against the two accused police officers and Sutter County in late January, saying they had violated the Sikh’s rights.
He was also awarded $25,000 besides the legal fees.
“This judgment reflects the unavoidable fact that Sutter County’s institutions failed our client,” one of Claire’s lawyers was quoted as saying.
“No one should have to experience hateful words or conduct – nor should they go months without an adequate investigation or have their legitimate concerns belittled and ignored when the safety of them and their family is at risk.”
The Sacramento Bee cited the court records saying that Claire and Hollis agreed to settle the issue outside the court using the voluntary dispute-resolution programme.
On January 30, Claire said in a statement, “This is a step forward for my own peace of mind – but more importantly, it will hopefully help to ensure that nothing like my experience ever happens to anyone in Sutter County again. It is the responsibility of our law enforcement officials to take all crimes and threats seriously, and accountability is essential when they do not live up to that standard.”
Claire’s case comes in the backdrop of an alarming rise in hate crimes in the US against Sikhs and other Indian-Americans.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), anti-Sikh hate crimes went up by 140 percent – from 89 to 214 – between 2020 and 2021: the highest ever since the FBI started keeping a record of such incidents.
(With inputs from The Sacramento Bee)
