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2 Apr, 2013

Hate, Congress and the FBI: Rethinking How We Track Hate Crimes in America | SikhNet

About two months ago, a woman in New York City, Erika Menendez, was charged with second-degree murder as a hate crime. Menendez was responsible for the death of Hindu American Sunando Sen: He was crushed by an oncoming train when she pushed him onto the tracks of an elevated subway station.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown quoted Menendez as telling the police: “I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I’ve been beating them up.”

Under federal law, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is required to compile statistics about hate crimes in the United States. Although the FBI tracks hate crimes against people from a variety of communities, including Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims and atheists, it does not track hate crimes against Sikhs and Hindus.

Read the rest: Hate, Congress and the FBI | SikhNet.