http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4892
NYC: Leniency for Muslim Hate Crime
Political Correctness; Posted on: 2008-06-09
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Boy who cut Sikh student's hair escapes jail term
A teenager convicted of hate crime for cutting the hair of a Sikh
schoolmate
in the US has escaped jail time, shocking the community which is already
seething after another student was attacked this week.
Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Joel Blumenfeld ordered Umair Ahmed,
19,
to complete 180 hours of community service and write an essay about what
he
had learned since his attack on 16-year-old Harpal Vacher.
Based on Ahmed's conduct in the next year, Blumenfeld will decide next
June
whether to put him behind bars.
"What you did was incredibly stupid," Blumenfeld was quoted as saying by
New
York Daily News. "Incarceration just can't be the only answer. For this
next
year, the threat of jail hangs over your head."
Ahmed faced up to four years behind bars for the May 24, 2007, attack on
Harpal, in which he dragged the Newtown High School freshman into a school
bathroom, ripped off his turban and cut off his waist-length hair,
prosecutors
said.
Ahmed was irate over a taunt about his mother, authorities said.
A Queens jury convicted Ahmed of felony menacing and coercion charges,
both
hate crimes, along with weapons possession and harassment.
The verdict which angered Sikh advocacy groups came as New York City
Schools
Chancellor Joel Klein personally apologised to another Sikh student who
was
punched in the face with a set of keys by a teen trying to rip off his
turban.
Following a rally calling for more protection for Sikh students, Klein met
privately with Jagmohan Singh Premi, 18, who was assaulted Tuesday at
Richmond
Hill High School in Queens.
Premi suffered an orbital fracture and bruising during the incident, which
led
to the arrest of his 15-year-old attacker who has been charged with felony
assault and harassment.
The classmate had re****tedly pulled Premi's beard and called him 'dirty'
and a
'terrorist' for months in their English as a second language class.
"I let him know that he can reach me directly if he needed to speak to
me,"
Klein was quoted as saying by New York Daily News.
"I am afraid to go to school," witnesses said Premi told Klein at
Education
Department headquarters where the rally was held. Klein said his agency
will
distribute anti-bias brochures and is working to expand the system for
tracking bias incidents.
Activists were not satisfied with Klein's response, noting that education
officials made promises after Vacher's hair were cut off and were unhappy
with
the sentence awarded in the case.
"The whole thing was a disgrace. It just wasn't an appropriate sentence,"
said
Prabhjot Narula of United Sikhs.
"For a hate crime, it was a slap on the wrist."
Ahmed, a Pakistani Muslim who came to this country six years ago, will
spend
the next year serving at the Elmhurst-based South Asian Youth Action
organisation, as well as undergoing tolerance counselling at a Holocaust
centre, the daily said.
He'll also have to spend 100 hours at a programme selected by prosecutors.
Continue...
http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/jun/08sikh.htm
From a reader: Incidents like this prove that far from bringing tolerance,
multiculturalism brings division which is used to justify legislated
INtolerance, erosion of our freedoms, and thought reform programs worthy
of
the Soviet Union. And why is this kid being sent to a HOLOCAUST center for
court ordered "counselling"? The history of Muslim/Sikh tensions (which we
now
see acted on in the US thanks to Third World immigration) goes far beyond
the
Second World War!
News Source: rediff
2007-2008 European Americans United.
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