Days after four ladies were racially abused and then harassed by a Texas lady who claimed to detest Indians, a fresh video of an Indian-American being racially attacked by a person in California has surfaced on social media. In the most recent incident, the assailant, a 37-year-old man named Singh Tejinder, is also an Indian-American.
According to the Fremont Police Department, he has been accused of assault, using profane language to disrupt the peace, and committing a hate crime in violation of civil rights.
When Krishnan Jayaraman went to pick up his meal at a Taco Bell on August 21, the incident happened. Jayaraman captured Tejinder telling him, “You’re disgusting, dog,” as the diatribe, which lasted more than eight minutes, began, on his phone. You look nasty. Don’t come out in public like this again. The attacker further said, “you’re a Hindu who bathes in cow urine”. “Indian people are a joke. Look at this nasty s**t,” he continued.
Tejinder repeatedly used the N-word, implied that Jayaraman didn’t eat meat, and shouted “beef!” in Jayaraman’s face throughout the foul-mouthed tirade. He also branded him a “dirty Hindu.” In the footage, he appears to have spit twice at Jayaraman.
“This ain’t India! You India up, and now you’re… America up,” Tejinder was heard stating at one point. Jayaraman claimed that the experience scared him, and the revelation that the offender was also Indian made him feel much worse.
“I was scared, to be honest with you. I was infuriated on the one hand, but I was scared that what if this guy becomes too belligerent and then comes after me?” he spoke with NBC Bay Area.
“I’m not here to pick a fight with you, what do you want?” said Jayaraman.
At that point, Jayaraman and a staff member at the restaurant dialled Fremont police. He said that the man yelled non-stop for about eight minutes. Fremont Police is currently looking into the event. According to abc7news.com, Jayaraman’s video ended with the arrival of Fremont police officers. Later, the police chief reached out to the community on social media.
Sean Washington, the police chief, wrote: “We take hate incidents and hate crimes seriously, and understand the significant impact they have on our community. These incidents are despicable. We are here to protect all community members, regardless of their gender, race, nationality, religion, and other differences.”
The statement further included, “we would like to urge the community to be respectful of each other and to immediately report any circumstances such as this that, upon investigation, may rise to the level of a crime. In the event of a hate crime, we will devote all available resources to follow up and investigate. Fremont is one of the nation’s most diverse communities, and we are thankful for the contributions of community members from different cultures and backgrounds.”
Krishnan Jayaraman thanked Fremont Police when the incident’s footage went viral and the perpetrator was arrested. He wrote, “Grateful for the @FremontPD to come to the rescue from a racist abuser at @tacobell Fremont! The part that sucked was that the abuser spat on the counter where food was being served and despite pointing that out, the Taco Bell employees continued serving the food on it.”
Jayaraman in a tweet said that he had to wait at the Taco Bell for 15 minutes, the last 8 of which were spent like this. He apologized for missing recording the original incident when the racial abuser sat next to him and spat on the counter where Taco Bell was serving meals.
The event has stunned the nation’s Indian-American community. Recent events include the arrest of Esmeralda Upton, a Mexican-American woman, by Texas Police on August 25 after she was captured on camera assaulting four Indian-American women.
