Joliet Cop Allegedly Assaults Sikh, Calls Him "Fucking Arab"

Official version:

Kuldip Nag, 49, of 3574 Buck Ave. was arrested by Joliet police and booked into the county jail Tuesday on a charge of aggravated battery.

Nag's version:

On Friday March 30, 2007 at around 3:00pm, Mr. Kuldip Singh Nag, a Sikh American who was awarded the Bronze Star for his service in the U.S. Navy during the first Gulf War, was at his home in Joliet, IL when a local police officer noticed that a van parked on Mr. Nag’s private property had expired registration tags. Upon being confronted with this, Mr. Nag’s wife, Vera Kaur Nag, informed the officer that the van is parked on their driveway and was inoperable.  

Mr. Nag then came outside to answer the officer’s questions regarding the van. The Joliet police officer then demanded that Mr. Nag park the van inside his garage and not on the driveway, to which Mr. Nag responded to the officer that it was not possible and that regardless, the van is parked on his private property and he has a right to park it on his driveway.  

At this moment, the officer pulled out his pepper spray and attacked Mr. Nag. As Mr. Nag screamed in agony, the officer removed his baton and violently struck Mr. Nag numerous times until he fell to the ground. While the assault ensued, the officer was reported by both Mr. and Mrs. Nag as saying, “You f****** Arab! You f***** immigrant, go back to you f****** country before I kill you!”

(Emphasis sic. Via Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing.)

Let me run this scenario through my bullshit detector, which has never failed has been wrong plenty, but not usually: The cop is an asshole, and he got aggro with Nag's wife. Nag charged out to come to his wife's aid, and a screaming match ensued during which Nag and the cop went at it. The cop used the pepper spray and baton, and hurled the verbal abuse.

Interestingly, there is a pic, presumably snapped by Nag's wife on her cell:

Doesn't tell us a whole lot, unfortunately. There is some sort of stain in the middle of Nag's back. The cop appears to be right handed, and I don't see his stick, which should be on his left hip. He hasn't even cuffed Nag yet, but is on his radio, and a second cop car is approaching in the background.

Result? Nag goes to jail, I think. Moral: Use the video feature on your cell next time, Mrs. Nag.

Comments

[Aquagirl]

I think Nag's five-day hospital stay is a critical piece of info. He's not going to jail, but Officer McWhiterson is going to court.

[Chris]

This cop further illustrates the reason why there is a growing distrust of law enforcement by the citizenry in general. TOO MANY TIMES law-abiding people take the hit because some badge-heavy county mounty thinks he's not getting the "respect" he deserves, and based on that, rather than the rule of law, they lie, beat and kill. What is it going to take to change this, Unintended Consequences?

[Roger]

Well let me apply my bullshit detector here. I don't know about Jolliet IL, but in most cities in the US if you have parked your own car on your own property. If there is NOT anything grossly wrong with the car like it is on fire or there are 29 cats living in it the Police do NOT get involved. It is a civil matter at most the cops can mail you a summons to come to civil court simply because it is not a criminal matter worthy of the police to enforce. I think this cop expects most people to bow down to him and if you are brown you had better kiss his feet while you are down there.

What is it going to take to change it you ask? A citizen patrol armed with camcorders to police the police. and you better have video camera set up every where from your home to your car to protect your self from lying cops. You might laugh but in 20 years it is going to be the norm.

[Mithras]

I'm not laughing! I would really prefer that myself, with some reservations about the authorities being able to access your tapes without your consent.

[Dave Makkar]

Dear Mr. Nag,I am sorry to hear that you was brutalized under racial bias. Unfortunately these kind of incidents will keep on happening against our community as long as cowards & racist are controling our religious,cultural, business and political organizations in America. Just take the recent incident in New Jersey where unarmed handcuffed Rajnikant Parikh was brutalized under racial bias by a Patrolman Michael Dotro in front of 30-40 residents. After being racially brutalized Parikh was charged with assaulting Dotro, instigating a crowd of 700-800 people to set up a riot, abused Dotro, failed to obey Dotro's orders and made a statement we do not respect Police in India so go away. When Parikh demanded justice he was arrested by ICE on a more than 10 yr old Deportation order issued by a Texas Judge re-activated by Patrolman's brother Sam Dotro who works for ICE in Newark, NJ.Same day entire community of Indian origin was called Cockroaches, Animals, Illiterate, Illegal Go home by the Police Union PBA.
Finally when Police was going to loose the case and under Judge's order where Internal Affair investigation files were to be released ICE deported Raj Parikh back to India on April 12, 2007.
New Jersey & ICE has spend almost $100,000.00 for keeping Parikh in Jail for almost 9 months and then deporting him just to save a white Patrolman Dotro accused of racial brutality.

Rajbir Singh Datta SALDEF refused to help Raj Parikh or raise objections to the worst ever called Racial Slurs against our community in the history of America by saying it is a local issue. Reema Desai & Deepa Iyer of SAALT joined the Police & Mayor Choi of Edison to help them white wash the issue of racial brutality against Parikh and the worst ever called Racial Slurs against our community.
WHAT WILL YOU CALL RAJBIR SINGH DATTA, REEMA DESAI, DEEPA IYER AND OUR SO CALLED COMMUNITY LEADERS?