Yet Another Hateful Act Against Sikhs: Mississippi Judge, Cops Harass and Unlawfully Detain Sikh Man

By Rohin Guha. Cross-posted from The Aerogram.

Not all hate crimes necessarily involve bloody noses and broken jaws. Some combine the one-two punch of hateful language and government-sanctioned bullying. What happened to Dr. Prabhjot Singh in Manhattan last Saturday is terrifying — and his ability to recover with grace is inspiring. A little bit trickier to parse is the Sikh man in Mississippi who earlier this year was harassed, humiliated, and arrested by several police officers and a judge in that state. We'll tell you now that this one at least ends with a little bit of justice.

In January of this year, Jageet Singh (no relation), a commercial truck driver, was pulled over for a flat tire by several cops. They then proceeded to mock him for his appearance, searched his vehicle without just cause, and even tried to get him to remove his kirpan -- laughing when he explained the significance of the article in the Sikh faith. Eventually, they arrested him -- not for the kirpan or even for the flat tire, but for "disobeying an officer." When Singh returned to Mississippi in March 2013 for a court date, he was waiting in the back of the courtroom for his attorney to arrive and was again accosted by four highway officers who told him to leave. They were acting on the orders of Judge Aubrey Rimes who wanted Singh ejected because he "didn't like his turban."

But wait, it gets better.

So... guess which state finally got around to abolishing slavery? Like, last week.

Did you know that Mississippi was the last state to officially ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery? On February 7, the state finally submitted the required documentation to ratify the amendment. That means on February 7, slavery was officially banned in Mississippi. I'm talking about February 7, 2013: Mississippi Officially Abolishes Slavery, Ratifies 13th Amendment.

And it might have stayed that way on the books, if not for an amateur history buff named Ranjan Batra, professor of Neurobiology and Anatomical sciences at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, who was inspired to look into the Thirteenth Amendment and his state's history after watching the movie Lincoln. Imagine his surprise when he found out Mississippi never got around to actually ratifying the amendment: