It was the eve of American independence day in 2008. Barely a year in this country as international students, we received some somber news that shocked us to the core. A few of our university seniors and batch mates had been in a terrible car accident. Two of them had died instantly while the driver lay comatose in the hospital. Over the course of the year, we processed the uncomfortable details of the court proceedings and the final verdict. The driver, who had survived, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for involuntary manslaughter of his best friends.
Over the years, I occasionally went back to that period via online searches, trying to make sense of the events and hoping for some closure. An early pardon for good behavior, a deportation to his home country, anything. The deeper I went down the rabbit hole, the more disillusioned I became with the law enforcement in this country.
On the night of the accident, as two of them lay grievously injured in the front seats, the first white patrol officer to arrive on scene made heroic attempts to pull them out of the car wreck. Unable to do so alone, he radioed for help. The second white officer, of a higher rank, allegedly refused to help him save them on the grounds of the two being "dirty (expletive) Indians". The next day, when the good cop called out the sergeant on his behavior in front of all colleagues, he was placed on leave for insubordination. Not to be outdone, he filed a whistleblower suit against the department that chronicled him being harassed, ridiculed and pressured to retire. He won a settlement of $250k in this particular case that ran for 3 years with support from fellow officers who served as witnesses. Consecutively, the entire police department became engulfed in a whirlwind of political machinations. The two factions, the good cops vs the bad cops, ultimately became a part of another lawsuit that the latter won. The bad cop had dozens of internal affairs complaints against him about racial profiling and uncouth language, and half the department tried to brush them under the carpet. Ultimately, he was let go off by the PD and currently works for TSA at Newark airport.
This story remains my personal example and a stark reminder of what I could expect from the law enforcement agencies in this country if my fellow Indians or I ever find ourselves in a dire situation. Luckily for us, the closest encounters we've had with the police has been unfair treatment over traffic violations, which isn't surprising in retrospect. We are all too familiar with another chilling video of an Indian grandfather being slammed to the ground by a white officer in a neighborhood in Alabama. While the victim struggles to walk due to partial paralysis, the perpetrator walks scott-free today.
As this nation rightfully roils over the gruesome murder of George Floyd and the 'Black Lives Matter' movement gathers steam once again, a tiny portion of us brown spectators who have no say in partisan politics, are secretly rooting for justice for George along with many like him; and an end to systemic racism in the institutions that are here to protect us.
When US beckoned me by Siddharth Wagh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Over the years, I occasionally went back to that period via online searches, trying to make sense of the events and hoping for some closure. An early pardon for good behavior, a deportation to his home country, anything. The deeper I went down the rabbit hole, the more disillusioned I became with the law enforcement in this country.
On the night of the accident, as two of them lay grievously injured in the front seats, the first white patrol officer to arrive on scene made heroic attempts to pull them out of the car wreck. Unable to do so alone, he radioed for help. The second white officer, of a higher rank, allegedly refused to help him save them on the grounds of the two being "dirty (expletive) Indians". The next day, when the good cop called out the sergeant on his behavior in front of all colleagues, he was placed on leave for insubordination. Not to be outdone, he filed a whistleblower suit against the department that chronicled him being harassed, ridiculed and pressured to retire. He won a settlement of $250k in this particular case that ran for 3 years with support from fellow officers who served as witnesses. Consecutively, the entire police department became engulfed in a whirlwind of political machinations. The two factions, the good cops vs the bad cops, ultimately became a part of another lawsuit that the latter won. The bad cop had dozens of internal affairs complaints against him about racial profiling and uncouth language, and half the department tried to brush them under the carpet. Ultimately, he was let go off by the PD and currently works for TSA at Newark airport.
This story remains my personal example and a stark reminder of what I could expect from the law enforcement agencies in this country if my fellow Indians or I ever find ourselves in a dire situation. Luckily for us, the closest encounters we've had with the police has been unfair treatment over traffic violations, which isn't surprising in retrospect. We are all too familiar with another chilling video of an Indian grandfather being slammed to the ground by a white officer in a neighborhood in Alabama. While the victim struggles to walk due to partial paralysis, the perpetrator walks scott-free today.
As this nation rightfully roils over the gruesome murder of George Floyd and the 'Black Lives Matter' movement gathers steam once again, a tiny portion of us brown spectators who have no say in partisan politics, are secretly rooting for justice for George along with many like him; and an end to systemic racism in the institutions that are here to protect us.
When US beckoned me by Siddharth Wagh is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
