WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.070 align:middle line:90%


00:00:10.070 --> 00:00:13.400 align:middle line:84%
In my research
into the incidences

00:00:13.400 --> 00:00:16.050 align:middle line:84%
of hate crimes in
the United States,

00:00:16.050 --> 00:00:18.800 align:middle line:84%
what I was struck by
again and again was

00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.630 align:middle line:84%
how often immigrants
were assaulted,

00:00:21.630 --> 00:00:27.890 align:middle line:84%
apprehended, killed
in their neighborhoods

00:00:27.890 --> 00:00:32.460 align:middle line:84%
when they were perceived
to be out of place,

00:00:32.460 --> 00:00:35.690 align:middle line:84%
when they were perceived to be a
threat, when they were perceived

00:00:35.690 --> 00:00:39.390 align:middle line:84%
to be a danger to the very
social fabric of this nation.

00:00:39.390 --> 00:00:41.040 align:middle line:90%
They were hurt in bars.

00:00:41.040 --> 00:00:42.390 align:middle line:90%
They were hurt on sidewalks.

00:00:42.390 --> 00:00:43.650 align:middle line:90%
They were hurt on their lawns.

00:00:43.650 --> 00:00:46.130 align:middle line:84%
They were hurt while
planting flower beds

00:00:46.130 --> 00:00:49.670 align:middle line:84%
outside gas stations
where they worked,

00:00:49.670 --> 00:00:51.360 align:middle line:90%
gas stations, which they owned.

00:00:51.360 --> 00:00:54.970 align:middle line:84%
That's Balbir Singh
Sodhi in Mesa, Arizona.

00:00:54.970 --> 00:00:58.250 align:middle line:90%


00:00:58.250 --> 00:01:03.650 align:middle line:84%
So the neighborhood is the site
where social and public policy

00:01:03.650 --> 00:01:04.319 align:middle line:90%
play out.

00:01:04.319 --> 00:01:05.510 align:middle line:90%
We all know this.

00:01:05.510 --> 00:01:09.030 align:middle line:84%
And I want to read the
playing out of one such site.

00:01:09.030 --> 00:01:11.860 align:middle line:90%


00:01:11.860 --> 00:01:15.010 align:middle line:90%
In February 2015.

00:01:15.010 --> 00:01:17.840 align:middle line:84%
Sureshbhai Patel, who
was 57 at the time,

00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:21.740 align:middle line:84%
was visiting his son
in Madison, Alabama.

00:01:21.740 --> 00:01:26.180 align:middle line:84%
He was a new grandparent, and
the baby was born a few months--

00:01:26.180 --> 00:01:28.070 align:middle line:84%
I think, a few
weeks ahead of plan.

00:01:28.070 --> 00:01:31.600 align:middle line:84%
And he had come by from
the state of Gujarat

00:01:31.600 --> 00:01:37.270 align:middle line:84%
in India to visit as one does
because love makes us move.

00:01:37.270 --> 00:01:38.930 align:middle line:90%
Love makes us fly.

00:01:38.930 --> 00:01:41.710 align:middle line:90%
Love makes us land and arrive.

00:01:41.710 --> 00:01:47.810 align:middle line:84%
And like many
elderly Indian folks,

00:01:47.810 --> 00:01:50.140 align:middle line:90%
he was taking his morning walk.

00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:51.440 align:middle line:90%
We love to walk in the morning.

00:01:51.440 --> 00:01:53.620 align:middle line:90%
We love to walk after dinner.

00:01:53.620 --> 00:01:56.860 align:middle line:90%
Yoga is for the rest of them.

00:01:56.860 --> 00:02:01.120 align:middle line:84%
And when he was doing this
in his son's neighborhood,

00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:07.630 align:middle line:84%
a neighbor called the police,
citing a skinny black guy

00:02:07.630 --> 00:02:10.810 align:middle line:90%
prowling the neighborhood.

00:02:10.810 --> 00:02:15.490 align:middle line:84%
The cop car tracked him down
just yards from his son's home.

00:02:15.490 --> 00:02:17.940 align:middle line:90%
He was assaulted.

00:02:17.940 --> 00:02:21.270 align:middle line:84%
He was thrown to the ground
by Madison police officer Eric

00:02:21.270 --> 00:02:26.220 align:middle line:84%
Parker, and the assault
left Mr. Patel paralyzed.

00:02:26.220 --> 00:02:30.640 align:middle line:84%
The lawsuit against Parker
alleged a number of claims.

00:02:30.640 --> 00:02:31.690 align:middle line:90%
And I want to read these.

00:02:31.690 --> 00:02:35.940 align:middle line:84%
False arrest, improper
search and seizure,

00:02:35.940 --> 00:02:38.475 align:middle line:90%
use of excessive force.

00:02:38.475 --> 00:02:41.430 align:middle line:84%
A year later, it will come
as no surprise to most of you

00:02:41.430 --> 00:02:44.880 align:middle line:84%
here that Parker was acquitted
of all civil rights charges

00:02:44.880 --> 00:02:48.780 align:middle line:84%
and reinstated into the
Madison police force.

00:02:48.780 --> 00:02:55.230 align:middle line:84%
The moment at which Mr. Patel
was assaulted in his own memory

00:02:55.230 --> 00:02:59.520 align:middle line:84%
is when he dropped his
handkerchief on the lawn

00:02:59.520 --> 00:03:01.120 align:middle line:90%
and he bent to pick it up.

00:03:01.120 --> 00:03:03.330 align:middle line:84%
And that was
perceived as a threat

00:03:03.330 --> 00:03:06.720 align:middle line:90%
by a trained police officer.

00:03:06.720 --> 00:03:09.810 align:middle line:84%
Handkerchief-- I want you
to imagine the lightness

00:03:09.810 --> 00:03:11.730 align:middle line:90%
of a handkerchief.

00:03:11.730 --> 00:03:14.735 align:middle line:90%
It is a piece of cotton.

00:03:14.735 --> 00:03:16.860 align:middle line:84%
And I want you to think
about the history of cotton

00:03:16.860 --> 00:03:19.130 align:middle line:90%
in this land.

00:03:19.130 --> 00:03:23.000 align:middle line:90%