By ARVIND PADMANABHAN

Discrimination

Indo-American Lawyers' Association (IALA) wrote a letter to the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York to conduct a thorough inquiry into the "racial profiling incident in Hempstead, New York, and commence appropriate proceedings against all those responsible," a press release by IALA said.

The case refers to the arrest of 19 Indian-American children who were charged with criminal trespass at the instance of Herricks School District Superintendent John Bierwith for being on school premises.

The criminal charges against 13 students were dismissed by Judge Lea Ruskin of the Nassau County District Court on April 28 as "legally insufficient."

Previously, according to a press release by New York Civil Liberties Union, Nassau County chapter, six of the group, who were juveniles, had been referred to Family Court of the county, which dismissed the charges and sealed the records.

"We are incensed by the incident. We could not seek an investigation earlier since the matter was being decided by the court. Now that it is out of the way, it permits meaningful investigation," Krishnan S. Chittur, president of IALA, told Desi Talk.

IALA's letter to Sanford M. Cohen, chief of Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney's Office read: "We request an in-depth inquiry followed by appropriate proceedings into what appears to be a disturbing case of discrimination in Nassau County."

The letter said: "The police suddenly swooped on these teenagers unannounced and arrested them even as they were complying with orders to disperse. No drugs, no counterband was found on any of the children, and they have not even been charged with doing anything illegal.

"Nevertheless, they were detained at the police precinct for several frightening hours, fingerprinted, and released with a desk appearance ticket. During this detention, the detaining policeman reportedly ran amuck with racial taunts, insults and petty humiliation that, if true, simply disgraced the uniform.

"What makes the unabashed display of bigotry even more offensive is that quite a few Caucasian children were also present with these Indian-American children at that time. These Caucasian children were not arrested, but simply permitted to go home.

"From news reports, the police explanation appears to be that they didn't have enough cops to arrest everyone. That explanation strains credibility since they did have enough cops to arrest all the Indian-American children.

"Neither Mr. Bierwirth, nor the offending policemen have offered any legitimate explanation for this bizarre behavior. Worse, they refused to withdraw the criminal proceedings, and insisted on prosecuting these children in criminal court," the release said.