Sikh shooting a reason for pre-crime detention

Editor, 

It would be a mistake to call the Sikh temple shooter a hate criminal — his type are predators. Just as the classroom bully preys only on the weak in a vulnerable setting like a schoolyard, just as a sexual predator rapes defenseless girls after taking them to an isolated setting, Wade Page found gentle people, Indian immigrants, and a vulnerable setting, the temple.

A predator need have no hatred toward his prey. Thus, there is no evidence that Page hated Sikh Indian immigrants as a group. This is in contrast to the Sept. 11 terrorists who hated Americans as a group. We hate those we fear, those who oppress us and bomb our kind.

The Indian Sikhs in Wisconsin did not oppress Page. And he knew that they were not Middle Eastern Muslims. He had plenty of experience with bearded, turban-wearing Taliban while in the U.S. Army stationed in the Middle East. For one thing, Sikhs have a different shape and slant to their turbans.

Much has been made of Page’s membership in “hate groups,” as discovered and documented for years by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Note that his main participation seems to have been in one or more of their music bands.

In the minds of such bigots, spouting anti-minority lyrics is entertainment and predation is sport, just as all these redneck hunters firing at defenseless animals call their predation a sport. Such people are lower than animals, because an animal preying on an animal is at least doing it for food, for survival.

This is why it is imperative that the Southern Poverty Law Center feed the FBI information about potential predators right from the get-go. If ever there is a need for pre-crime detention, it is for these predators in the making. Until these pre-emptive measures are taken, predators will see how their own society is wrongly reading their minds and therefore making excuses for their actions.

Witness the American media allowing as to how Page felt that whites were being treated badly in the Army, how everybody can relate to how angry a man can get if his girlfriend dumps him, how much “frustration” there is in people joining white supremacist militia, like there is something wrong with society and they have a right to be “frustrated”?

Furthermore, the murders had barely happened, and the media were chanting that Page would “take his secret to his grave.” Like we shouldn’t investigate any further?  Even a few days later, the media are claiming justice is never really going to get done. Is American society trying to close ranks this way?

What is wrong with investigating this homegrown terrorist’s associates, and calling his violence-promoting comrades to the mat? Whitewashing and rationalizing mass murder because of systemic xenophobia is no longer enough for our Sikh immigrant community. Since the World Trade Center attacks, they have been subjected to the most heinous acts of victimization. Only a clear message from law enforcement will cut it, such as having a local police officer guarding every Sikh temple in the nation. If this is not done, the large numbers of returning military men like Page will increase the likelihood of predatory attacks of this nature.

Arun Anand Ahuja
UNM student