Anti-Violence . Legal . Hotline for Hate Crimes Against South Asians

1-888-99-NOHATE

The South Asian Bar Association and Foundation has operates a Hotline for victims of hate crimes. We are a group of 200 attorneys in the San Francisco Bay Area of all faiths in the full variety of private, government, and public legal practice. The Hotline is a voicemail box that is monitored daily by attorneys and others to assist victims of hate crimes. All calls are returned within 24 hours by an attorney. We can help you work with the local police, district attorneys, and other local officials to ensure that any hate crimes are taken seriously.

In wake of the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon many innocent Americans of South Asian descent have been verbally or physically assaulted. These acts have been based on a perception that their victims’ skin color, or religion, or name, or turban, or scarf somehow indicates that such persons bear responsibility for these terrorists. Already, the home of a South Asian family has been the target of an attempted firebombing in San Mateo that injured a three-year old child, in San Francisco an Indian man was stabbed, and in Palo Alto a physical assault on an Indian man was attempted.

Such acts are sometimes reactionary expressions of fear and sometimes committed by persons who believe the present climate excuses acts of racial prejudice and hatred. As with the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, nothing can excuse such actions.

We encourage you or anyone you know to call the Hotline to report any attacks that you believe to have been racially motivated.

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