2.5 million people sign petition calling for leniency for Harjinder Singh, the illegal alien that caused three deaths in Florida.

 

A photo of the accident. Fox News/police photo. 

2.5 million people have signed a petition calling for leniency for Harjinder Singh, the illegal alien that caused three deaths in Florida after he made an illegal u-turn. Fox News. The Singh case set off a firestorm on social media with people outraged that he was able to drive a commercial truck despite being in the country illegally. Singh fled Florida for California but was extradited back to face six charges of vehicular homicide and manslaughter. Despite that, the petition says the charges are to severe for what he did, calling it a "tragic accident". The petition was signed "Collective Punjabi Youth".

The petition, which is still up as of this writing, can be found here.

My Comment:

I know I have already extensively covered this case, but it is clear that the outrage over it isn't going away. And this petition is going to add considerable fuel to the fire. Indeed, I can't think of a worse thing to make this case even more divisive then a petition signed by 2.5 million people, as of this post. It's like folks from India are trying to inflame prejudice against themselves. 

To be sure, we should note that many of these signatures could be fake. There have been reports that the petition has been "botted" with fake posters boosting the numbers, either due to Indian supporters of Singh making bots, or for folks trying to gin up more outrage. But even still, there are a ton of legitimate signatures on this petition. 

Much of this is cultural. India has very different expectations of what happens when you kill someone due to negligence. From what I understand if this case would have happened in India, Singh would have faced only 2 years in prison. If he is convicted in Florida though, he would face between 7 and 42 years depending on how harsh the judge wants to be. It's a 7 year sentence for each count, and he could be convicted of six counts of manslaughter and vehicular homicide. There is a huge difference in expectation in terms of punishment when comparing these crimes in India and Florida. 

India also has massively different respect of traffic laws. Traffic laws are a joke in India and it's pretty much an "anything goes" country in terms of how people drive. Traffic deaths are extremely common and the main reason they aren't worse than they are now is because there is so much traffic and population that it's difficult to travel at speeds high enough to actually kill people. Crossing three lanes of traffic to make a u-turn would not be a big deal in India, even if it did cause a death. 

The folks signing this petition might also perceive, correctly I might add, that anti-Indian prejudice has increased dramatically in the past few years. The reasons for this are varied and have a lot to do with how members of both the Indian diaspora and Indians in India have behaved in person and online, but it's obviously true that the perception of Indians has changed for the worse. Of course this petition is going to inflame that even further, but it could explain why these folks could possibly defend this petition. 

As for me, I am disgusted by this. The fact that life is cheap in India and that a person can cause three deaths and get away with a slap in the wrist is a problem, not a solution, and we absolutely should not be giving leniency for a man that not only caused three deaths, but did so while operating a truck illegally. Not to mention being in the country illegally. I have zero sympathy for Singh and would not be upset if he got the full 42 year sentence plus any other charges the state wants to give him for fleeing to California. 

I just keep thinking about if this happened to someone I knew or cared about (or it happened to me personally). I would be outraged if a huge number of people were trying to get a lesser sentence for a man who killed someone I cared about. Sure, we have seen this before, with many of the Black Lives Matter homicides of the reaction to Luigi Mangione, but having millions of people say that your loved one's lives don't matter at all, and that the guy that took them away from you should get away with a slap on the wrist? That's radicalizing... I know it's wrong to judge people for the actions of a few people, but it's still horrible that folks can downplay what Singh did. 

The good news is that this petition is going to accomplish next to nothing, other than angering Americans. Singh hasn't even been convicted yet, let alone sentenced, and Governor Ron DeSantis would be committing political suicide if he were to order a lesser sentence. Change.org petitions are always next to useless and the only thing they really do is get publicity. In this case the publicity they are getting is so negative, I am amazed that the petition is still up.