Diaspora demands “cultural training”

Even as a police officer was arrested and faced expulsion for using excessive force against a 57-year-old Indian grandfather visiting his family in Madison, Alabama, the Indian-American community took up the cause of Sureshbhai Patel across the nation, expressing frustration at widespread allegations of police brutality and calling for reform and retraining of law enforcement engaging with minority communities.

Although community organisations such as South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) voiced outrage at the unprovoked violence against Mr. Patel, which was captured in its entirety on the police vehicle “dash-cam,” FBI Director James Comey raised eyebrows on Thursday, when he appeared to defend latent racist attitudes among police officers.

Shortly after news emerged of the attack on Mr. Patel, SAALT said, “The Madison City Police Department has indicated that a ‘communication barrier’ led to the use of excessive force. No amount of barriers related to communication can excuse the use of unreasonable force and violence on a resident.”

The organisation’s call for disciplinary action against the police officer, Eric Parker, and a public apology appeared to be taken up by Madison Police Chief Larry Muncey on Thursday evening. Their remarks came even as Mr. Comey during a speech here quoted from the song “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” in the Broadway play Avenue Q.

Religious organisations also took up the issue with Samir Kalra, Senior Director for Human Rights at the Hindu American Foundation, a prominent voice for Hindus here, linking the incident to broader trends of racism in law enforcement.

He said, “This attack on an individual who had committed no crime is unfortunately consistent with the continued pattern of aggression shown by police officers in the Tamar Rice and the Eric Garner cases.”

HAF’s Associate Director of Public Policy Harsh Voruganti called for “appropriate cultural training for all officers of the law,” as did Hindu cleric Rajan Zed, who said, “First responders should be adequately trained in cultural appropriateness so that they understood and interpreted more effectively the actions-attitudes-behaviours of linguistically and culturally diverse people.”