India Abroad - June 10, 2011

‘We need community trust to
keep all of our communities safe’
RITU JHA
A special meeting was held between the
San Francisco Police Commission, the San
Francisco Human Rights Commission, the
Asian Law Caucus and civil rights groups
May 18.
Minorities, specially Muslims and South
Asians, have been increasingly targeted by
the San Francisco police as well as the
Federal Bureau of Investigation since 9/11.
The issue was raised in September 2011 by
the San Francisco Human Rights
Commission and local people testified on
being profiled by the San Francisco police
and the FBI.
“I am not a San Francisco resident, but I
work in the city two days a week,” said
Manpreet Singh, who participated in the
meeting. “I am planning to move to San
Francisco at the end of the year. I am here
because I have some experience with the
FBI,” he added.
Singh said eight months after 9/11, he
moved from San Francisco Bay Area to
Washington, DC for civil rights work. He
serves on the national board of the
American Civil Liberties Union. He said he
was not representing any organization at
the meeting.
“If I decide to move to San Francisco, we
don’t want incidents like what happened
with a 15-year-old boy after 9/11. He was
taking the photograph of a bridge in
Virginia. The next day, FBI agents were at
An attendee at the meeting wears her heart on her sleeve
RI TU JHA

his door, demanding to know who he was
and what he was doing. I don’t want that to
happen to our children at the Golden Gate,”
said Singh.
The new San Francisco police chief
Gregory P Suhr assured the people at the
meeting that members of the Joint
Terrorism Task Force would be held
accountable.

RITU JHA
Rajan Zed
Last month Rajan Zed, president,
Universal Society of Hinduism, said he had
written to the Fremont Unified School
Board in the San Francisco Bay Area to add
Diwali to the school holiday calendar. The
board members have denied receiving any
such proposal.
“Nobody has approached us at the school
board or the superintendent office,” Lara
York, Fremont Unified School Board mem-
ber since 2006, told India Abroad. “So it is
very strange that they sent a press release
got it printed in a newspaper without hav-
ing a discussion with us. I would be happy
to have a conversation with them and tell
them about our process.”
York said considering Diwali as a holiday
is complicated as it is tied with the teachers
contract, so it is not that simple for a board
to make changes easily. But, she added, the
board is open to discussions on the subject.
RAKESH SHARMA Krishnamoorthi eyes Congress
Former Illinois deputy treasurer Raja
Krishnamoorthi formed an exploratory
committee last week to seek election in the
state’s 8th Congressional District.
Krishnamoorthi, 38, is eyeing a seat which
flipped over from Democrat Melissa Bean
to Republican and Tea Party favorite Joe
Walsh in last November’s Congressional
elections. Since then, the district has been
split into three other districts encompass-
ing the 10th, 14th, and 16th districts, frag-
menting Walsh’s voter base. The redrawn
district has also been extended to include
large tracts of Asian-American population.
Krishnamoorthi is no stranger to Illinois
politics. Apart from his stint as deputy
treasurer, he served on the Illinois Housing
Development Authority and came within a
whisker of winning the Illinois comptroller
race last year. He also served as a campaign
issues adviser during President Barack
Obama’s campaign in 2000 and 2004.
Raja Krishnamoorthi
approach, our representative is pursuing an
ideological agenda,” he said, referring to
Walsh’s Tea Party credentials.
Krishnamoorthi, a Harvard- and
Princeton-educated lawyer, said redistrict-
ing had made the area more competitive
for Democrats.
Krishnamoorthi told India Abroad that
he felt the district was not “properly repre-
sented” in Congress. “Rather than pursuing
a commonsense and problem-solving
“There is potential base for someone of
my profile to do well,” he said, referring to
the large swathes of South Asian and Asian
Americans in the redrawn district.

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