Hate Crime Against American Sikhs Continue, US Man Arrested For Assaulting A Sikh Man At A Convenient Store

A 24-year-old man was arrested in the US state of Oregon on hate crime charges after he assaulted an Indian American Sikh man who was working at a convenience store.

Andrew Ramsey, a resident of Salem has been charged with intimidation in the second degree, a misdemeanour hate crime after his attack on Harwinder Singh Dodd.

Local media quoting his indictment document reported that Ramsey assaulted Dodd because of the perception of his religion.

It all began with Ramsey approaching Dodd demanding rolling papers for cigarettes, but the latter refused to give it to him as he did not have an ID.

Justin Brecht, a former combat Marine, who was at the store at the time of the incident told FOX 12 TV that Dodd asked Ramsey to leave, which made him angry. Ramsey responded by pulling on the clerk¡¯s beard, punching him in the face, pulling him to the ground and kicking him.

Brecht and other customers at the store intervened and held Ramsey down until officers got there.

"He was bleeding, he had gotten punched quite a bit in the face, and kicked on the ground and thrown to the ground very brutally. It was very serious," Brecht said.

This is the latest instance of attacks targeted on Sikhs in the US which appears to be racially motivated.

AFP/ FILE

In last August alone there were three separate incidents were the Sikh men were attacked in racially motivated crimes.

According to a 2007 estimate, there were between 250,000 and 500,000 Sikhs living in the US, most of them who migrated there from India or Pakistan and their second generations.

AFP/ FILE

Ever since the 9/11 attacks, the community has been witnessing an increased number of hostile acts, which many see is the result of them being mistaken for Muslims due to their turban and beard.

In 2013, there was even an incident when a Sikh professor Prabhjot Singh, was attacked in New York by a group of 20-30 men who called him "Osama" and terrorist.