The 24-year-old man in Oregon has been arrested on the charges of a hate crime after he brutally assaulted an Indian American Sikh man who was working at a convenience store.
A resident of Salem, Andrew Ramsey, has been charged with intimidation in the second degree, a misdemeanor hate crime after his attack on Harwinder Singh Dodd.
As per local media citing his indictment document, Ramsey assaulted Dodd because of the perception of his religion.
Ramsey approached Dodd demanding rolling papers for cigarettes, but the latter refused to give it to him as he did not have an ID.
Justin Brecht, a former combat Marine, who was at the store at the time of the incident told a local media that Dodd asked Ramsey to leave, which made him angry. Ramsey responded by pulling on the clerk’s beard, punching him in the face, pulling him to the ground and kicking him.
Brecht and other customers at the store stepped in and held Ramsey down until officers got there.
“He was bleeding, he had gotten punched quite a bit in the face, and kicked on the ground and thrown to the ground very brutally. It was very serious,” Brecht said.
This is the latest instance of attacks targeted on Sikhs in the United States which seems to be racially motivated.
Earlier this year in August alone there were three separate incidents were the Sikh men were attacked in racially motivated crimes.
According to a 2007 estimate, there were between 250,000 and 500,000 Sikhs living in the U.S., most of them who migrated there from India or Pakistan and their second generations.
Ever since the 9/11 attacks, the community has been witnessing an increased number of aggressive acts, which many see is the consequence of them being mistaken for Muslims due to their turban and beard.
-Sowmya Sangam
