Parminder Singh Shergill Was Shot Two Months Ago: Why Won't Police Tell Us What Really Happened?

By Kishwer Vikaas. Cross-posted from The Aerogram.



Shortly after 9 a.m. on January 25, Parminder Singh Shergill, a 43-year-old U.S. Army Gulf War veteran, was shot by two police officers in Lodi, California, a small town 40 miles south of Sacramento. According to officers, he charged at police with a folding knife. Testimony from neighbors says otherwise. Within a week after the shooting, the officers, Scott Bratton and Adame Lockie, were back on the streets.

Shergill bled to death on the curb -- seven houses from the one where he stayed with his mother. Much later, as his brother, Sarabjit, bathed his body for the memorial service per Sikh tradition, he counted 14 bullet holes. Fourteen. "It is like 14 shots going through my own heart," said Shergill's sister Kulbinder Sohota in an interview with The Sacramento Bee in a front-page story that ran this past Sunday.

Two months after the incident, the Lodi Police Department has said little about Shergill's death. According to the Bee they have released no autopsy information, witness interviews, or 911 call records.

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.