A Bangladeshi-American man called on prosecutors Monday to bring hate crime charges against a man he says viciously attacked him while screaming, “Fuck Indians!”
Gazi Rahman, 46, said he was talking on the phone outside a grocery store on Hillside Avenue near Parsons Boulevard in Jamaica, Queens, on May 7 when Christopher Porr, 39, who he did not know, asked for money.
“I said, ‘I’m sorry I don’t have any money,’ and then he punched me and said, ‘Fuck Indians,’” Rahman recalled at a news conference outside Queens Criminal Court...
When police arrived, they didn’t just arrest Porr. They arrested Rahman, too, assuming that the men had simply gotten into a fight, Rahman said.
Glen Rozado, who said he witnessed the assault, said he tried to explain to officers that Porr had screamed an anti-Indian slur before attacking Rahman.
“I just told them what happened,” Rozado said. “But they weren’t that interested in listening to us.”
Rozado said Porr at first attempted to flee, but when cops arrived, he collapsed to the ground and pretended to be hurt.
The NYPD’s own camera captured video of the attack. The footage, which Ali Najmi, Rahman’s lawyer, published Monday on Twitter, corroborates Rahman’s and Rozado’s version of events and clearly shows Porr is the “unprovoked aggressor,” the lawyer said.
The footage appears to show Porr attacking Rahman. Rahman attempts to defend himself with a series of kicks, but Porr delivers a powerful punch, knocking Rahman to the pavement.
Rahman said police accused him of being drunk, which he said was not only untrue, but offensive. Rahman said he is an observant Muslim, which forbids him from drinking...
Both Rahman and Porr were charged with assault, court records show. Najmi said the DA’s office told him they will drop the charge against Rahman.
Najmi said Porr’s
social media posts show that he “is an avid supporter of Donald Trump, show that he is anti-immigrant, show that he is anti-Muslim.”
Porr appeared to share a Facebook post from the Donald Trump for President Facebook page. Trump has called for a ban on all Muslims entering the U.S. Porr also shared an image with a caption reading, “As long as there’s a homeless child in America, we have no room for Muslim refugees.”
