The Sikh Coalition is dismayed by the Hudson County prosecutor's decision not to charge a January assault on Hansdip Singh as a bias crime. The Coalition learned yesterday that the prosecutor's office instead is charging Carrie Covello, who attempted to remove Mr. Singh's turban in public, with harassment, a non-bias-related charge.

The assault occurred on January 29, 2008. Hansdip Singh, a Sikh New Jersey resident, was standing in the Madison Grill in Hoboken when a woman behind him grabbed his turban and attempted to pry it from his head. She had almost succeeded by the time Mr. Singh turned around to confront her. When he did so, the woman remarked that she had a problem with "that stuff" on his head, and told him to "take it off." [Sikh Coalition Press Release]