By Naeisha Rose
More than 30 members of the Sikh community joined elected officials last Friday in a show of solidarity for taxi driver Harkirat Singh, 25, at the Gurdwara Sikh Temple Society in Richmond Hill where Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Hollis) held a news conference to address the assault on the driver.
Singh recounted what happened to him as he was driving a block away from Penn Station and picked up drunken passengers, three men and a woman, at 5 a.m. on April 16. They asked to be driven to the Bronx.
As he approached the destination, Singh said the four customers hurled slurs at him and became even more belligerent when they realized they had given him the wrong address. Singh requested payment on their $41.76 fare, and that they leave his cab. When they refused to pay, Singh called 911. The driver said the female gave him cash, but one of the men got back into the taxi to pull off his turban and tried to take his phone before they all ran off. Singh, who came to the United States from the Punjab three years ago, managed to get a snapshot of one of the four passengers during the ordeal, Weprin said.
Weprin hopes that the attention generated by this incident will help get his long gestating Religious Garb Bill to the Senate floor.
“I have a bill that was passed four years in a row in the Assembly and it has not passed the Senate yet,” Weprin said. “It would outlaw discrimination in any employment in New York state, public or private, for people wearing religious garbs, such as turbans or people wearing facial hair,” Weprin said. “With hate crimes rising in 2017, it is more important than ever that we stand together with our fellow Americans of faith.
Weprin called the theft of Singh’s turban a hate crime and believes that, even though the taxi driver was not seriously harmed, “the police should investigate it as such.”
Joining the assemblyman was Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, Council member Barry Gordenchik, Franck Joseph II of the Commission on Human Right, new Sikh Society President Kudip Singh Dhillon and Councilman Rory Lancman. (D-Hillcrest).
“It is a courageous thing to come forward and speak,” Katz told Singh, who lives in Ozone Park. “It is not easy to have your faith insulted and go through a robbery like you did. Messages of hate will not be tolerated in the city of New York, especially in Queens.”
Singh later thanked the NYPD for putting all their efforts into the investigation and for responding within the five minutes of his 911 phone call during the attack.
The investigation is currently being conducted by officers at One Police Plaza.
Reach reporter Naeisha Rose by e-mail at nrose
