Cross-posted at dailykos.com (http://www.dailykos….).
Sacramento’s the last place on Earth that you’d think of hearing about this, but its happened. Just minutes ago, Satendar Singh died at Mercy San Juan hospital. He was 26. He was killed by Russian immigrants who used homophobic and racist slurs while beating him to the point of a coma Sunday night.
Singh was born in Fiji, and at 19 gained a visa to enter the United States. He was literally living the American Dream, working in the Bay Area AT&T call center. His parents were not at his bedside when he died, but in Fiji, unable to gain visa status to come here.
Singh was not gay. But the color of his skin and the fact that he was a single guy in a group of couples led these cowards to think he would be easy prey. They killed him for no reason, and this makes me think about hate crime legislation. I used to be one of those people who thought “you can’t legislate what’s inside a person’s head.” And its true: you can’t. But when an attack like this happens, you can’t help thinking that hate crime legislation would help, and Satendar Singh would be at work in Rosemont right now instead of the morgue at Mercy San Juan.
I’m sad, I’m sickened, I’m disgusted.