Another Racial Hate Crime incident in US, Indian man assaulted

Washington, March 19, 2017: An American man has been charged with assaulting an Indian-origin man and tossing racial rebukes, erroneously conceiving him for a Muslim man. Jeffery Allen Burgess, a 54-year-old man living in Pennyslavia has been accused of disparaging and harming Ankur Mehta on November 22 because of his deemed race, color, and nationality.

Burgess was arraigned on a hate crime charge by the federal grand jury in connection with the alleged assault at a Red Robin restaurant in South Hills Village as reported by the Pittsburg Tribune. The arraignment was announced by the acting Assistant Attorney General Tom Wheeler of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and acting US Attorney Soo C Song for the Western District of Pennsylvania announced the indictment.

In the interim of the incident, police reported that Burgess was sitting next to Mehta inside the Red Robin restaurant when he began insulting him and then repeatedly elbowed him in the head. He further rebuked Ankur Mehta saying, "I don't want you sitting next to me…You people."The onlookers told the Bethel Park Police that Burgess was constantly him anti-Muslim slurs.

Mehta was treated at the St. Clair Hospital for a laceration to the upper lip and a loose tooth after Burgess struck Mehta 4-5 times repeatedly.

Besides the racial slurs, Burgess told Mehta that "things are different now" said police which authorities suppose was an excerpt from Donald Trump election speeches.

The accused is convicted with 10 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000 or both. Additionally, ethnic intimidation, public drunkenness, and simple assault have been also charged to him stemming from the same incident.The racial discrimination is spurring in the states after Donald Trump's declaration of a ban on migrants.

The racial discrimination is spurring in the states after Donald Trump's declaration of a ban on migrants. There have been a series of hate crime incidents hitherto in the United States. On February 22, Indian nationals Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani were shot at a bar in Olathe, Kansas, by a man shouting "get out of my country". Another incident where a Sikh American was shot and injured on March 3 in Kent, Washington, by a gunman who fiercely told him to "go back to your own country.

– Prepared by Naina Mishra of Newsgram, Twitter: Nainamishr94