By Alex Ginsberg
Three weeks after a Sikh family was attacked and beaten in front of their Woodside home, activists are criticizing the slow pace of the investigation and calling for stronger protections for immigrants.
“I'm happy with what we've heard verbally,” said Brian Pu-Folkes, executive director of New Immigrant Community Empowerment, an organization that has taken the lead in organizing a community response to the attack.
“I'm not happy with the results now. It's been three weeks and we still don't have the perpetrators apprehended … Woodside is a relatively tight-knit community, and people know who the attackers are. I'm sure of that.”
The three victims, Lakhvir Singh Gill, 32, and a 40-year old man and 32-year-old woman who asked not to be identified, were set upon Aug. 3 by three white men who called them a “Bin Laden family” and told them to go back to their country. The three escaped with minor injuries, thanks to neighbors who stepped in to break up the melee.
Following the incident, Queens residents of all backgrounds were quick to condemn the attack. Hundreds of citizens joined local elected officials at a rally and vigil Aug. 19 in Jackson Heights.
Inderjit Singh, a candidate for the City Council in the 28th Councilmanic District who has worked with the victims, characterized the event as a great success which sent a clear message that bias crimes would not be tolerated by the community.
He said the family who was attacked was recovering.
“They are upset,” he said. “But they have been more forgiving than anybody else would have been, so they are holding up very well.”
But Singh as well said the lack of arrests was frustrating, and he suggested that the police had not made the investigation enough of a priority.
Police at the 108th Precinct, where the incident occurred, and at the citywide Hate Crimes Task Force, which is leading the investigation, would not make an official comment, but one source bristled at the accusations. The source noted that the very fact that the case was being investigated by the task force – an elite unit that reports directly to the commissioner – was proof of the department's eagerness to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The precinct's commanding officer, Capt. Douglas Rolston, also met with local Sikhs at a Woodside temple Aug. 10.
But both Pu-Folkes and Singh said the problems extended far beyond police response. Pu-Folkes called for stronger laws to protect immigrants' personal information and more education in schools to foster sensitivity among different ethnic communities.
In particular, a measure before the City Council, Intro. 326, would strictly limit the circumstances in which city workers can pass along private information, such as immigration status, to federal authorities. At the same time, Pu-Folkes said, the mayor's office was working on an executive order which will establish some of the same restrictions, although on a lesser scale, he believes.
The real challenge was to make sure that in negotiations between the Council and the mayor the bill not lose strength, he said.
“NICE's official position is that we want New York City to end up with the strongest confidentiality laws in the nation,” Pu-Folkes said.
He also called for specific curriculum changes in the city schools.
Singh agreed, noting that the attack was “motivated by stupidity” and would not have occurred if the assailants had properly identified the victims as Sikhs, who were in no way connected with the Sept. 11 attacks.
But Singh, who is a Sikh himself, said all New Yorkers were at risk from ignorance.
“Stereotyping,” he said. “It happens to everybody. It happens to blacks. It happens to Hispanics. And that is what we are decrying.”
Reach reporter Alex Ginsberg by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 157.
