TRACY (California): UNITED SIKHS conducted a community press conference on October 15, 2020 attended by the Mayor of Tracy, California to call for answers in the on-going fight for justice for Parmjit Singh Kang who was murdered in a Gretchen Talley Park on August 25, 2019 in Tracy, California. The police arrested and held a white male without bail for a year in connection with the murder but the San Joaquin Court dismissed the case against the accused citing lack of sufficient evidence.
The conference yesterday, was attended by the Mayor of Tracy Robert Rickman and city’s other elected officials. At the conference, the Mayor of the City of Tracy, Robert Rickman, reassured a crowd stating, “We are in close contact with the District Attorney. We are re-evaluating the evidence which we have and looking for additional evidence. One thing I can tell you is that this case is not closed. It is still open and we will do everything we can with all the resources we have and work with our allied agencies to make sure that justice prevails.” See here.
“We are here in support of the victim, the family and the Sikh community because this was a hate crime, we cannot have this in our community. This is not going to be tolerated in our community. We will obtain justice for Mr. Singh, ” said Miguel Villapudua, San Joaquin County’s supervisor. See here.
More than 100 prominent Sikh community leaders with the city officials attended the press conference at Gretchen Tally Park and joined us in the live press conference that played on Facebook See here. With continuous community outcry, UNITED SIKHS’ and other Sikh community leaders’ efforts to see justice prevail, the willingness of the city of Tracy’s Mayor, the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office, and the FBI, the murder investigation has been reopened by the Tracy Police Department and U.S. Department of Justice.
San Joaquin County’s former supervisor mentioned at the conference that he is proud of the organization’s efforts and the Sikh community for uniting together and fighting for justice. “You guys are fighting and pushing the issue forward, I applaud you for that, ” he said.
Jasmit Singh, Advocacy Director at UNITED SIKHS states, “We are here to ask the Tracy DA's office and police, along with the FBI and federal authorities, to investigate hate and bias as a motive and that this be reported as a bias motivated crime. We will continue to call for a thorough hate crime investigation until the community is satisfied that law enforcement has cast the widest possible net to uncover the truth. In that search for the truth, bias and hate are all possible motives given the current state of race relations in the country today and the threat of domestic terrorist groups and its membership.”
The family of Parmjit Singh, UNITED SIKHS and the Sikh community in the U.S. and around the world have called for a hate crime investigation from the beginning. “We believe that given who the victim is, the facts of the case, the domestic terrorist attacks on Sikhs since 9/11, the hate crimes, bias rhetoric and harassment of Sikhs in Tracy, California and bullying perpetrated against Sikhs and marginalized communities stem from bias and hate. Education and the justice system are the pillars that can remove this bias and they have to work together. If we are silent today, someone else could be the target tomorrow.” stated Jasmit Singh.