"More than 300 people – including Mayor James T. Phillips, township council members and school officials – attended a three-hour memorial service and candlelight vigil Sunday afternoon for Divyendu Sinha.
Sinha, an accomplished computer scientist and researcher, was walking with his wife and two sons near his home on Fela Drive on June 25 when a group of teenagers jumped out of a car and attacked him. Sinha, 49, died of a head injury three days later.
Within a week of the attack, police arrested four 17-year-olds and one 16-year-old as suspects."
Stein, in his tweeted defense refers to a potential Gandhi-esque response by Indians. Obviously, there has to be a stronger response to these kinds of hate crimes. As Senator Robert Menendez wrote in his letter to the Editor of Time, "New Jersey's Indian-American community is one of our nation's many great immigration success stories. Those of Indian descent have introduced New Jersey to a rich and deep cultural tradition and have helped to spur prosperity and innovation.
Unfortunately, our state's Indian-Americans have also contended with aggressive discrimination. In the late 1980s, a New Jersey street gang calling itself "The Dotbusters" engaged in attacks, vandalism and threats directed at the burgeoning Indian-American community. I am very familiar with the circumstances surrounding that sad episode - it is a reason that I authored New Jersey's bias crimes law while in the State Assembly. Words are more powerful than just a grouping of letters on a page,and unfortunately, they are often misused to spur hatred."
Hopefully this NJ bias crimes law has some teeth - the sentiment was nicely summed up by one of the attendees of the memorial service: ""It was moving," said Rana Ray, 41, of Kendall Park, at the end of the ceremony. "But now is the time for action. We have to educate children and tell them what a hate crime is. We don’t want to be at any more memorials."
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