Oct 31, 2008 10:05 am US/Eastern
Hate Crimes Committed Against 2 NJ Sikhs
Father, Son Brutally Beaten In Hateful Attack
WAYNE, N.J. (CBS) ―
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A 67-year-old New Jersey man, a Sikh, was beaten and bloodied, while a 10-year-old boy was also attacked.
CBS
A 67-year-old man was viciously attacked Monday night, and police believe the suspect may be the same man who also attacked a 10-year-old boy just weeks earlier. Authorities believe the motive behind both attacks was hate.
"It shouldn't happen to anyone," Ajit Singh Chima, the elder victim, told CBS 2.
Battered and brave is Chima, talking about how his usual morning exercise on Carteret Street in Wayne on Monday suddenly turned into a violent exercise in hatred after a man in his twenties approached him.
"I said, 'What do you want?' And he hit me," Chima said. "A blow on the nose knocked me to the ground, [then] he kept punching and punching."
Police say the suspect be the same man involved in another bias attack on a young boy three weeks earlier.
Gagandeep Singh, just 10-years-old, was walking home from school when he was attacked. His main injury is something he does not want anyone to see – damage to his hair, which Sikh boys and men consider a gift from God.
"He came out of nowhere," Singh said. "He just came up behind me, threw me on the floor, held me with his feet and cut my hair with the knife or scissor. Then I jumped a few fences and ran away because I was so scared."
Singh could not see the face of the suspect, who wore a mask. Because both victims are Sikhs and because there was no theft, police believe the motive is hatred, based on the victims' religious beliefs.
The Sikh community in Carteret is very tight-knit, numbering at about a thousand people. Many, if not all, simply want to know why the attacks happened.
"Why did you cut my hair?" Singh asks. "What do you want from Punjabis?"
Singh's sister Jasvir Kaur summed the problem up: "We respect other religions, and we want them to respect us too."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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