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Chicago Teenager Pleads Guilty To Hate Crime Against Sikh Cabby
By a Staff Writer
A Chicago teenager pleaded guilty last week to one count of hate crime of beating a Sikh cab driver, Inderjit Mukker, 53, of Darien in September this year, according to DuPage County state’s attorney’s office.
News reports said that the 17-year-old Willowbrook pleaded guilty Dec. 7 to punching Mukker in the face as the latter sat in his car in.
Mukker, who wears a beard and a turban, said the teen was cutting him off and calling him names, such as “terrorist” and “Bin Laden,” on Cass Avenue.
When both drivers pulled over near 69th Street, the younger driver got out of his vehicle and walked over to Mukker’s car, where the two exchanged words before the teen hit Mukker in the face, according to prosecutors, quoted by the Chicago Tribune. Mukker was taken to the hospital with cuts and bruises on his face, DuPage County officials said.
The teenager’s sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 8 in juvenile court.
The Sikh Coalition, a civil and human rights advocacy group, said Mukker had suffered a fractured cheekbone and cuts requiring six stitches. Coalition representatives called for the case to be prosecuted as a hate crime.
Harsimran Kaur, the coalition’s legal director and Mukker’s attorney, said Mukker was in the courtroom when his attacker entered his plea. “We are pleased the defendant is accepting responsibility for the impact of his actions on Mr. Mukker and the Sikh community,” Kaur said. “We believe it’s important to acknowledge hate when it happens. We will continue to monitor the case when it goes to sentencing,” she said.
The guilty plea comes at a time when the Sikh Community in the United States are fearful about increasing attacks against the members of the community following the San Bernardino Shooting of 14 people by a radical Muslim couple, and also a call by Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump during his election campaign speech to ban all Muslims from entering the United States.
The two incidents have not only created fear among Muslims, but also among Sikhs who say that because of their similarity in appearance with beards and headgears, they might be more vulnerable now to hate crimes, reminiscent of the post-9/11 days and months when many from the community were attacked.
In the Mukker case, reports said, the state’s attorney’s office charged the teen as a juvenile with four felony counts of aggravated battery, saying the beating followed a road rage incident. The juvenile also was charged with one count of aggravated battery to a police officer.
Coalition officials, however, objected and said they would pursue federal hate crime charges through the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The coalition met with the members of the state’s attorney’s staff Sept. 14 and provided additional information that showed hatred was the primary motive for the attack.
The guilty plea came a week before the White House held a meeting with Muslim and Sikhs Dec. 14 to discuss the fallout the communities are feeling in the wake of the deadly San Bernardino shootings, and a spike in anti-Muslim incidents.
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