09/19/01 – IMPORTANT UPDATE
STOP THE HATE. STOP IT NOW. NOT EVERYONE WITH THE “WRONG” COLOR SKIN OR HAIR IS YOUR ENEMY STOP THE HATE NOW.
LET US NOT REACT TO BARBARISM WITH BARBARISM AND BLIND CRUELTY. STOP THE HATE NOW.
WORLD TRADE CENTER AND PENTAGON BOMBINGS: ANTI-ASIAN AMERICAN BACKLASH
Compiled by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, www.aaldef.orgPartial List of Reported Incidents
(as of Sept. 17, 2001)
For More Information or to Report An Incident,
Please call 212-966-5932 or 212-760-9110 x 476
Or email info@aaldef.org, mfung@aaldef.org, or sling@aaldef.org
New York
� A Huntington Station man screamed “[I am] doing this for my country” as he attempted to run down a Pakistani woman with his vehicle. He revved his engine for several minutes, put his car into drive and headed directly at the Pakistani woman standing on the sidewalk.
* A Sikh man in Richmond Hill, Queens (a large Indo-Caribbean and Sikh community) was assaulted with a baseball bat and shot at with a BB gun by a group of people. He was seriously injured.
� Several South Asian AALDEF volunteers were driving through the town of Hempstead, Long Island approaching Baldwin Road North when the vehicle was pelted with rocks. AALDEF reported the incident to the Hempstead Police Department.
� A Floral Park resident reported that an Indian antique store located in Jamaica, Queens was vandalized when unidentified individuals threw stones through its windows.
� As a Sikh man was running to escape the explosion at the World Trade Center, a group of four unidentified men chased after him, calling him a “terrorist.”
� Three Sikh men aboard a train leaving Grand Central Station were singled out by NYPD officers who asked to search their bags. It was reported that the officers kept saying, “We’re sorry we have to do this” after the men asked why their bags were being searched.
� A South Asian woman riding a New York City subway was spat on and told that she belonged to the group of people who blew up the World Trade Center.
� Unidentified men with a paintball gun assaulted two Sikh teenage boys in Richmond Hill, Queens. NYPD officers, who witnessed the attack, apprehended he perpetrators.
� A 7-11 shop owned by a Sikh was burned down in Ronkonkoma, Long Island.
� A Sikh temple in Richmond Hill, Queens was attacked by miscreants who drove by and fired rubber bullets at the building.
� Indian stores in Jackson Heights, Queens were vandalized.
� A Japanese American Brooklyn resident was leaving the Graham Ave train station when he was followed by several men shouting, “fucking foreigner” and “cocksucker.”
� An elderly Flushing couple of South Asian descent was shopping for groceries when they were hit in the back by rocks while anti-Muslim epithets were shouted.
Four white teens threw three bricks through the first floor bathroom and kitchen windows of a Sikh family’s home in Brooklyn. That night, eggs were thrown at their second floor window. The police responded to the attack in a hostile manner.
A Sikh owner of a grocery store in Long Island was shot and killed.
� A Chinese American Manhattan resident was followed by a Black man who yelled, “You Korean, you Chinese, go home where you belong.”
� A taxi cab driver of South Asian descent was pulled out of his vehicle and beaten.
� A South Asian student at the State University of New York at Binghamton was pushed and shoved while racial epithets were shouted.
� A fifteen-year old Farmingville boy made several harassing phone calls to a 7-11 store owned by an Indian American threatening to blow it up. Meanwhile, a national bomb threat closes a 7-11 store in Sparta, New Jersey for an hour as township police searched the premises.
New Jersey
� A Bound Brook Sikh family awoke to vandals throwing stones through their living room window at 1 am. The Bound Brook police department has not identified the incident as a bias crime.
� When a South Asian man driving from work in Jersey City to his home in Franklin Township approached a stop sign, a group of people threw garbage and stones at his car while they cursed and told him to “go back to his country.” The harassment continued as he drove on Interstate 78, when a car next to him sped up and gestured for him to lower his window. The driver of the other vehicle cursed at him and said, “You did it!”
� A Sikh man from Lawrence discovered that his car tires were slashed.
� In Atlantic City, a man accused of calling a taxi company and threatening to blow it up unless its taxis were pulled off the road was charged with making terrorist threats.
� The 2-year-old daughter of a Woodbridge resident was playing outside her apartment complex when a number of teenagers started to pelt her with stones while yelling racial slurs.
Two Sikh men were driving on Route 80 when another vehicle slammed into them.
Maryland
� Passengers spewing anti-Arab hate pushed an Indian American student at the University of Maryland out of a metro train.
Washington, D.C.
� A Sikh man was accosted by pedestrians on the street, who began to yell expletives and threatened to “get” him and bomb him in retaliation for the terrorist acts.
Massachusetts
An Indian-owned convenience store was vandalized by two teens who threw a Molotov cocktail through the store. The teens were charged with assault with the intent to murder, hate crime, possession of infernal machine, and malicious and willful burning.
Rhode Island
� An Amtrak train in Providence was stopped by local police officers, who boarded the train and arrested a Sikh man because he appeared “suspicious.” The passengers of the train applauded as he was taken away, and several white youth shouted, “Let’s kill him, let’s kill him.”
North Carolina
Two Muslim students at North Carolina State University were physically attacked and spat upon.
Arizona
� A gunman drove to a Mesa gas station and fired three shots, killing its Sikh owner, Balbir Singh Sodhi. In a wild rampage, the gunman drove to another gas station and shot at the Lebanese American owner, and then fired shots into the home of an Afghan family. Mr. Sodhi was the father of three sons, ages 22, 24, 27. He was planning to return to India in November to live with his youngest son and wife. The assailant, Frank Roque, was charged with one count of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and three counts of drive-by shooting.
California
� In Los Angeles, a Pakistani man parked his vehicle at the Glendale Galleria Mall and returned to find it scratched across the right side with the words, “Nuke ‘em” written all over.
In San Francisco, vandals threw a bag of blood on the doorstep of an immigration center that serves Arabs and the city’s large Asian population. They also threw a large plastic bag labeled “pig’s blood” on the front door of Minority Assistance Services in the Mission District.
An Indian American walking in the South of Market area of San Francisco was beaten and stabbed by a gang of individuals yelling anti-Black and anti-Arab epithets.
Illinois
A Pakistani cab driver was beaten on East Chicago Avenue.
Wisconsin
� Two Asian students from the University of WisconsinMadison were attacked while walking down West Gilman Street. This assault was the fourth incident of violence to occur near the district, and local police officers have not classified it as a hate crime.
Michigan
� An Indian American student from the University of Michigan was harassed by two white men as they screamed, “Go back to your country.”
Ohio
� A Sikh gurdwara (place of worship) was attacked when an individual threw a beer bottle filled with gasoline through the window. The fire was later contained.
Oklahoma
A Tulsa resident of Pakistani descent was beaten by three men and was hospitalized.
Texas
A Pakistani grocer in Pleasant Grove, Dallas was slain; the local police have not yet determined the motive for the killing.
A firesetting device was thrown at a Conoco station in Southeast Austin owned by a Pakistani man. No one was injured because the device fell short of the store, leaving burn marks on the sidewalk.
A southwest Houston tire store caught fire Sunday morning, two days after customers threatened the Pakistani owner. The customer threatened the victim: “You are going to come in my country and threaten me? The way you burned us, I am gonna to burn you and I’m gonna burn your place and I’m gonna burn your people.”
