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Two walking buddies, wearing their turbans gunned down for no apparent reason in Elk Grove.
..."and that attack, which is now being looked at as a possible hate crime is fueling
an uprising."
We have been overcome
by the outpouring of support from the neighborhood, the police, the business community,
civic organizations, and even both Muslim and Jewish advocacy groups.
It is truly amazing how all Americans stand together
A number of us are donning the turban today.
This is a very small way
of saying,
'We are all Sikhs
and we are proud to be Sikhs.' We are all Californians.
In this particular case, no, as of right now we don't have any evidence
directly
that this is a hate crime. However neither do we have any evidence that
it's not and in this particular case the absence of those other things, combined
with the fact, such as we have no robbery attempt, we've got two men
obviously garbed in Sikh uh... you know appearance
not engaged in any activities themselves that would lend them to be victims of
some other sort of crime. We cannot rule that out nor should we rule that out.
Because certainly to the Sikh community here in Elk Grove, and elsewhere
absent another explanation and in this environment where they had so frequently
been the target
of hate violence, I mean we have to acknowledge that is a very real
possibility and remain diligent about investigating that as we go forward.
This kind of a crime in a community like ours and there are many like ours
in the country
has a real significant effect on the feeling of safety on the part of a
community
That's why it's so important that we pull together.
That we say this is not acceptable in our society regardless of what the
motive is and it's a especially not acceptable if it is a hate-motivated crime
because, as we talked about earlier, that gets right at the core of who we
are as Americans.