The news reports that followed the murder were maddening in what they revealed.

1)The Russian guy and his buddies were hurling gay and ethnic epithets at the Indians and words were going back and forth all day. Towards the end of the day, one of the russians threw a punch at Satinder and Satinder fell down unconscious. He dies later in the hospital .

2)All of the Indian friends wanted to remain anonymous. They were afraid of retaliation which means the cops do a crappy job of assuring them of their safety. It also means the Indian friends were also a bunch of shameless cowards.

3)The cops were able to get only very little information. The only information they had was a couple of cars - both identified by the make and color, but not the model. Very little license plate info. The cops were soliciting information and witnesses through a press release to tell them what happened despite the presence of so many witnesses on the victim's side. Obviously the cops did not care enough to get the Indian witnesses to reveal more.

4)No police sketch of the accused was released despite the fact that so many witnesses saw these Russians for an entire day.

5)The cops had the make and color of the cars. THey knew the family probably had a Russian last name considering the group of Russians were conversing in Russian and were probably first generation immigrants. This was not a case of a russian gang that ambushed the Indians out of nowhere and ran away under the cover of darkness. Yet it took them three weeks to identify them.

This new entry talks about the arrests:
http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archive s/004638.html

1) The Russian guy who delivered the fatal blow is named Vusick and ran away to Russia.

2. His buddy Aleksander Shevchenko was arrested for a hate crime and contributing to the incident.
   
3. The incident took place July 5. But the warrant was sent on July 27. 22 days to identify the guys who were out in the open for an entire day in the proximity of a bunch of witnesses?
   
4. Here's the kicker. The Russians were there all day with their families. Hardly anonymous.  The way the authorities described the initial incident, there was no mention of the Russians being with families. The fact that the Indians were such poor witnesses tell me that cops were not good enough to get all the important information right away. There is no way a few families comprising of kids and parents can just stage such a quick getaway where so little was identifiable.  

Imagine if some terrorists got away with the same shit. They were at a camp. Someone said or did something these terrorists felt was demeaning to Allah , and they lost it and attacked a US Citizen and ran away with their families.  How embarassing would it be for law enforcement to let the killer run away to Saudi Arabia and it takes them a month to find the identity in the first place despite the presence of so many witnesses?

Wasn't the purpose of Homeland Security to help out local law enforcement get better with improved cooperation at the federal and local levels? Isn't this War on Terror just empty talk? It is clear that screening you for contact lens solution at the airport is more of a show than a good effort at improving intelligence gathering? Or do people really care about enforcement only when it comes to nabbing muslim or black people? If intelligence has really improved, shouldn't that improved intelligence gathering filter down to the local Sacramento police?

I would also like to say some hate is justified towards immigrants who come here and want to spread hate among our communities. There has been a problem with russian immigrants and virulent Anti-Gay bigotry in the Sacramento area. Maybe these immigrants should be deported for complicity in hate crimes, whether they are legal or not. If law enforcement can terrorise innocent muslim families in the name of national security, aren't these russian families spreading hate guilty of threatening the security of US residents? Some of the local churches these Russians go to are guilty of spreading hate against gays. There was even local concern about this way before this incident took place.  

In the following link, you have  the remorseless wife of Vusick who not only is unapologetic but insists her husband acted in self defense and that  they were good Christian people.
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/314370.h tml

Mr Vusick, even if found guilty faces a maximum of 8 years in jail. And he thinks he doesn't deserve to go for that long. That is why he ran away.

Good job law enforcement. You let a total amateur immigrant get away. What did we give up our civil liberties for if you cannot assure us of basic law enforcement?

ANd if the local gay groups did not admirably apply the pressure they did, I wonder if the cops would have even solved this case?

http://www.outsacramento.com/Satendar_Si ngh.htm is also a good source of links to what happened.

Update [2007-8-8 17:31:31 by Pravin]: Go here http://fox40.trb.com/ and look for a video on 8/7 titled attacker arrested. In it, the report interviews a friend who says they gave the police video of the attackers and a license plate number and it still took the cops that long. It also looks like the cops treated the suspects with kid gloves. I guess a brown possiby gay guy's life means less than a white chick partying in some other country. They confirmed the identity on the 27th of July, and they were supposedly negotiating or some crap, but then were taken by surprise when they found out on Aug 5, that the suspect fled. RIDICULOUS. What incompetence and indifference. As Keith Olbermann would say WORST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD : Sacramento Police Update [2007-8-8 18:11:1 by Pravin]:For some background on bigoted slavic/russian immigrants , here is a link to an LA Times article. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-russgay13oct13,0,3388537,full.story?coll=la-home-headlines