Fresno in Mourning: Two of Our Sikh Neighbors Attacked in One Week

Fresno ended 2015 in pain and mourning. The New Year brought more of the same.

Amrik Singh Bal is an elderly Sikh man who wears a turban and has a long, white beard. Just two weeks ago, on December 26, two men attacked Bal in west central Fresno as he waited for his ride to work as a farmhand. From their truck, the men yelled curse words at him before putting their truck in reverse and running him over. Then they punched him again and again. According to reports, one of the men yelled to Bal, “Why are you here?” Police are investigating the attack as a hate crime.

But it didn’t end there. Just a few days later on New Years’ Day 2016, news soon broke that Fresno’s first homicide of the year had claimed the life of another Sikh man, 68-year-old Gurcharan Singh Gill. The suspect stabbed Gill repeatedly so that he died of his wounds minutes later. In light of the recent attack against Bal, police are investigating this incident, too, as a possible hate crime.

Fresno would not take these tragedies lightly. On December 29, people in the community came together for a town hall meeting hosted by the Jakara Movement, a Sikh youth organization working on issues of social justice. Together, the community condemned the violence and strategized to change the climate that allowed this to happen in the first place. There are about 50,000 Sikhs in the Central Valley, many living in farming communities and west Fresno, where Amrik was attacked.

These aren’t just one-off events. In 2013, a man beat 82-year-old Piara Singh with an iron bar after Singh left the Nanaksar Sikh temple in south Fresno. The attacker had reportedly flung racial slurs about Muslims at Singh and told him, “I’m going to destroy your mosque.”

In the past few years, there has been a major uptick in violence and bullying against Sikh communities across the country. According to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Sikhs are often confused with Muslims. But everyone should be free from hate crimes, no matter their religion.

Amrik Singh Bal’s broken bones and bruises are evidence of what happens when hatred tangles with stereotypes about race, color, faith, and where people come from. The town hall was a reminder that we all need to check phobias and hatred from the start, not just when they kill our neighbors. Together, we can make Fresno a place where all communities feel safe to exist and express their faith.

Angélica Salceda is a Staff Attorney with the ACLU of Northern California.