A Pakistani man beaten on a Brooklyn street called for federal charges Monday against the five teens charged in the attack, speaking out for the first time since the attack two weeks ago. NY1’s Shazia Khan filed the following report.
"They were raising slogans, ‘Muslim terrorists,’” explained Shahid Amber, a victim of a hate crime. “[They] started cursing me, [saying] go back to your country, scum bags, you just messed this country up and all that."
Amber recalled how it all began. He was eating ice cream in front of a Dunkin Donuts in Midwood, Brooklyn on October 29, when a group of teenagers started yelling ethnic slurs at him. The 24-year-old immigrant from Pakistan said the verbal assault soon became physical.
“One of them, he spit on my face,” said Amber. “As I was cleaning my face, I see a punch coming on my face with a brass knuckle.”
Amber was treated for a number of injuries, including a broken nose, and soon after, the police arrested five teens, all of them Jewish, and charged them with assault as a hate crime. But on Monday, Amber and his lawyers joined several community organizations to say that is not enough. They want the teens to face federal prosecution.
“I would like to make sure that they would be used as an example, that if anyone else who wants to commit the same bias crimes, that there is very strict law that would be applied against them,” said Omar Mohammedi, Amber’s attorney.
Community leaders said Amber’s case is not an isolated incident. They said in recent years there has been an increase in the number of anti-Muslim complaints.
“There have also been many, many daily incidents of people who are facing discrimination in the work places, children who are being harassed at school, and women who are spit at or subjected to rude words on the street because of how they choose to dress,” said Katherine Metres of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
And, some community activists are holding the government responsible for these hate crimes.
“Young people are not born to hate, they learn it someplace,” said Donna Lieberman of the New York City Liberties Union. “And when our government engages in profiling based on ethnicity, religion, and race then our young people learn very, very quickly.”
The Jewish Anti-Defamation League has joined others in condemning the attack. The suspects are due back in court next month
3 thoughts on “VICTIM CALLS FOR FEDERAL CHARGES IN TEEN HATE CRIME”
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I can sympathize with being a target of discrimination. However, it was I who was attacked and beaten with a hammer by Muslim men, 4 Pakistani, Muslim men to be exact. I was walking with my wife, who is Muslim, on Coney Island Avenue and the 4 men seemed as if they were looking for a fight. You know the proverbial “What are you looking at” routine. I replied by saying “What?” and that is when it began. The punched me kicked me and hit me with a hammer several times. But nothing was done by the police, which my wife called on her cell phone, why? because of the political bullshit going on and the over sensitivity towards the Muslim community. I did not fight back I just blocked as much as I could I was taken to the hospital and about an hour later the police showed up to give me a choice, either we all get arrested (including me) or we all get tickets (including me). It seems they said there were more witnesses saying I started the fight. I would assume they had more witnesses because it was in a Pakistani dominant neighborhood where everyone sticks together. The fact that they just wanted to fight pissed me off but I was wearing a US Marine shirt, I was in the Marine Corp, while they hitting me they were saying things such as “Your a Fu*%$#@ Marine? I love to kill you guys? I kill your kind all the time! This is why we kill your people over seas all the time! They ripped the shirt off of me as they were screaming these anti American slurs and how they love to kill American soldiers. But nothing was done because I don’t belong to any organizations, no ethnic community to back me on any scale because I am an American first. The sensitivity that was shown towards these individuals was so bias and such bullshit. They found the hammer I had the imprint of the hammer on my back for about a week and I lost several days of work but when an American gets attacked it is fine and not a hate crime according to statistics. I guess being an American in America is now the minority. I don’t condone any attack on anyone because of their association, race, color, creed, etc… The law should go for all and not for some especially if they don’t want to piss off the local ethnic groups for just one person. I think our society has become to sensitive to the Muslim community afraid to make any waves, The Pakistani community in Brooklyn has improved the neighborhood so much, I love to eat in the restaurants, shop in the stores and just speak to my Muslim brothers. But since the incident my wife is scared to walk over in the Pakistani community. I told her not to be afraid but it does no good she will not go with me. It is a shame a few bad apples ruin the whole Pie.
Those stupid kids in Brooklyn should be punished for what they did. Certainly nothing justifies killing innocent people. The Israelis do it on accident or when the palestinans use women and children as human shields for terrorist camps. The palestinians do it by strapping on vests with exposives, nails and rat poison to kill and maim as many innocents as possible on a bus.
The same week that Amber was attacked in Midwood, Muslim women in Gaza were shot at by Isreali soldiers as they marched in protest and homes were subject to air strikes in the middle of the night. The message was clear to me and probably many Muslims that the enemy is not only in the streets of Gaza patrolling residential streets in military tanks, but also here in Brooklyn, reminding us of the terror that our brothers and sisters are made to endure day in and day out. Just as these young men need to pay for their crimes, Israel needs to face up to its crimes that have been committed on a daily bases for six decades. The preseverence of Palestinians is a testimony to the fact that evil never conquers despite its unwavering military might. Their struggle should teach all of us to stand up to injustice and brutality in all its forms no matter how powerful or brutal it appears .