Clarion India
New Delhi – In a clear case of hate crime, an Indian restaurant owned by a Sikh was vandalised in Santa Fe of New Mexico. The vandals broke into the hotel with criminal intent and left behind a trail of destruction along with hate messages scrawled all over the walls, a media report said on Tuesday.
The crime can be seen against the backdrop of volatile racial relationship in the US in the wake of racial riots followed by killing of a black man, George Floyed, by a while policeman in custody.
The loss caused to India Palace restaurant from the vandalism is estimated at $100,000, local Santa Fe Reporter said. Local police and the FBI are investigating the matter.
Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) condemned the incident. Its executive director, Kiran Kaur Gill, said, “This kind of hate and violence is unacceptable and swift action must be taken to ensure the safety and security of all Americans.”
Elaborating on the vandalism at the restaurant, the local daily noted that the culprits left behind overturned tables, smashed pieces of glassware scattered all over the floor, emptied wine racks, beheaded statue of a goddess. They took away all the computers. The vandals even turned over and destroyed food warmers while the front desk area was devastated, plates smashed and the kitchen rendered completely unusable, it said.
In his reaction to the incident, owner of the restaurant, Baljit Singh, told Santa Fe Reporter, “I walked into the kitchen, I saw everything and I was like, hold on, what? What is going on here?”. “White Power,” “Trump 2020,” “Go Home,” and far worse were spray-painted on walls, doors, counters and any other available surface.”
According to the daily, some phrases contained derogatory racial slurs and threats of violence.
A SALDEF board member, Simran Singh, lives close to the restaurant. She described Santa Fe as a peaceful town where the Sikh community beautifully integrated, since the 60s.
“Tensions have flared recently with the reinvigoration of the Black Lives Matter movement and the removal of statues associated with Spanish colonisers of this area, who committed a number of atrocities,” he said.
Nevertheless, he expected an outpouring of love and support around the city.
However, SALDEF felt an unprecedented rise in hate crimes including the April 29 incident wherein a Sikh American Lakhwant Singh was brutally attacked by a man identified as Eric Breeman in Lakewood, Colorado.
