How one Sikh American veteran was treated with a "hero's welcome"

Posted April 28th, 2007 by GustavoMustafa

I thought I should share this, this was a statement released by SALDEF (The Sikh American Defense and Education Fund):

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 you 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.

Comments

this is a terrible

On May 3rd, 2007 center says:

this is a terrible joke. i am not laughing.

It wasn't a joke. It is

On May 3rd, 2007 Laury Silvers says:

It wasn’t a joke. It is awful.

Non-Muslim South Asians are

On May 3rd, 2007 GustavoMustafa says:

Non-Muslim South Asians are often the target of anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia due to ignorance and lack of awareness.

If a post is satiric, it

On May 3rd, 2007 Laury Silvers says:

If a post is satiric, it will say so on the key words. The interview just posted is tagged under "satire."

Laury, i hear you say, it happened. Though you say so, it is very difficult for me to believe that such incident could happen in Joliet, IL, off all places. The police officer must be an imposter; at least I hope so.

I feel someone punched in the stomach after reading your ‘no satire’ comment..

Center, this is what I found

On May 4th, 2007 GustavoMustafa says:

Center, this is what I found in the April 5th Joliet Herald News, in their police blotter section:

Kuldip Nag , 49, of 3574 Buck Ave. was arrested by Joliet police and booked into the county jail Tuesday on a charge of aggravated battery.

The official police report differs from the SALDEF account.

This incident has received little media attention, but is a burning issue in the progressive South Asian community.

Given recent police brutality in the May Day incident in Los Angeles, one should not be too terribly surprised.

In fact, 40% of Marines in Iraq would not come forward if one of their own killed an innocent civilian in a recent Pentagon report just recently released on wartime stress.

Here is the Chicago ABC

On May 4th, 2007 GustavoMustafa says:

Here is the Chicago ABC affiliate account of the incident:

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=5204526

If he pushed the officer,

On May 4th, 2007 Hakim Baker says:

If he pushed the officer, he’s screwed. It’s aggravated battery in Illinois. Even if he didn’t push the officer, if the officer testifies that he did, who’s a jury going to believe? He’s screwed. It happens a lot. Illinois, the "Land of Lincoln", has one of the most racist criminal justice systems in the US. Statistically. I used to be an idealistic, believing, progressive liberal, then I worked for the state court system for a few years, now I’m an anarchist.

This makes me appreciate my white suburban roots, I’m far less likely to be hassled or jailed. But now I’m poor, so we’ll see.

Not that it’s easy being a cop. God bless them and save us from all this mess.

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