Turban makes news in Hoboken
2/3/2008:
A reader told me they were at Madison tonight, and took this picture of a new sign they had on the front door! Hooray!
1/31/2008:
Figured I’d add the news report for those that missed it..
Oh, and see the CBS2 news report from tonight here.
1/30/2008:
One mans religious faith leads to bias allegations against a Hoboken resident.
WNBC reported that Carrie Covello, 37, of Hoboken, allegedly tried to rip the turban off a Sikh man’s head over at Madison Bar & Grill early yesterday morning.
38-year old Hansdip Singh Bindra, of Union City said “I was just placing an order, and thought someone was trying to rip my turban off.” He thought this was the last thing you’d expect, even being at a bar filled with intoxicated patrons after midnight. He claims Covello wanted him to remove his turban because she didn’t like it. He then advised the bouncer of the situation, but called the police anyway, who eventually arrested the woman and charged her with bias intimidation and harassment. Penalties vary from probation to a year and a half in prison, if she’s convicted. He said that if bias crimes like this go without consequences, they’re apt to commit them again.
Covello later admitted “touching” the turban, but claims she was only goofing around and having fun. Bindra said he felt violated because wearing a turban is part of the five mandated articles of faith of the Sikh religion.
Dave Carney, owner of the Madison bar said “It’s deplorable behavior from a customer we hope to never see again.”
Hoboken NJ
352 Responses to ** Turban makes news in Hoboken **
January 31st, 2008 |
Whoa, lots of high horses on this board. I know Carrie, she’s not a bad person. This is a really bad error in judgement, but if any of you have never done anything stupid when you were drunk then go ahead and swing away. I know I have done plenty (although no matter how drunk I have been it’s never been anything racist, I’ll give you that).
The real story is that in general people need to be educated about those that are different than they are–maybe nobody is going ahead and pulling turbans off but I hear a LOT of “terrorist” comments and the like from people who are just ignorant. This doesn’t excuse her for doing something that stupid, but I think there are a lot of self-righteous people out there using this incident (and Carrie) as a punching bag.
The Morristown comment is funny though. Like the Madison is “racially diverse”. That’s hilarious. Um, only if a bar that’s 95% white is now called “diverse”.
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January 31st, 2008 |
I have a female friend who wears hats all the time. They’re not ballcaps either, we’re talking expensive, designer hats. It’s her thing. One night at the bar some douche ripped the hat from her head and tried to get out the door with it. Long story short, she got the hat back. No charges were pressed. Clearly he was drunk and stupid and did something “funny”. Really ridiculous and stupid, but “funny” to him. I’m sure this girl did the same thing.
So, this is a hate crime?? Cut me a break. You know what, turbans look funny. While I was taught to keep my hands to myself, clearly other people weren’t (see example above).
If I pressed charges against everyone who did me wrong, good lord the list would be long. As my dad always told me, bad things happen at bars after midnight.
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January 31st, 2008 |
i wasn’t saying i would do it, or have ever done anything like that, just saying that we’ve all been drunk and done stupid things w/out thinking.
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January 31st, 2008 |
In response to HobokenPublius who said:
It is his prerogative to embrace or eschew whatever tenets of his cultural heritage he wishes. If he wants to hang with some friends at Madison he can, and though he was probably drinking soda, if he wants to throw back a shot to alleviate a couple rough weeks in the market it is his choice.
Picking on someone because they are culturally different is the most classless of social behavior there is. I would like to see her do that to some Hasidim…can you imagine the outrage?
It is embarrassing for Hoboken, and shows the true nature of some of the nouveau riche Real Estate barons in this evidently obtuse backwater enclave.
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January 31st, 2008 |
In response to yellowsubmarine who said:
Yea well, I didn’t say I didn’t like realtors, I said I didn’t like Liberty Realty. RIF.
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January 31st, 2008 |
oh, and don’t forget that sikh’s like to chop off heads with scimitars.
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January 31st, 2008 |
In response to rag246 who said:
You’re joking here, right?
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January 31st, 2008 |
OK for an example of what I’m talking about in terms of ignorance, see strand tramp comment above. What a jackass.
The REASON the US is a better place to live than many middle east countries is for EXACT EXAMPLE you give–that citizens are given freedom to express their religion and beliefs.
Um, “zealots”? They aren’t zealots. Their religion requires a certain dress unlike Christianity. He wasn’t walking around the bar with an open Koran.
GTF home? I hate to break this to you, but this could be his home. You can be an American citizen a religion that might seem strange to you. Maybe you should move to Morristown.
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January 31st, 2008 |
In response to yellowsubmarine who said:
My bad. My righteous indignation meter was set on high this morning.
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January 31st, 2008 |
She’s just a silly, rude, thoughtless lush making an ass of herself.
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January 31st, 2008 |
In response to Dr. Midnight who said:
Exaggerating, yes. Joking, no.
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January 31st, 2008 |
In response to TheGreenMan who said:
I used to fall for Strand Tramp’s nonsense too.
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January 31st, 2008 |
calling the cops was an over reaction. i said she shouldn’t have touched the guy, right?
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January 31st, 2008 |
I really would be mortified if I were this broad, with the story being all over the press and Internet boards. I’m sure her family and employer are so proud of their 37-year-old Carrie being blind drunk late-night at a bar and pulling at some Indian guy’s turban!
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January 31st, 2008 |
In response to British Hairways who said:
I’d like those of you who have never been blind drunk at a bar to please continue to post your rants against Carrie.
For those of you who, like me, have been blind drunk, please think about how stupid you’ve acted and cut the girl some slack.
I agree with strand tramp- the police was an excessive move. She should have been kicked out and banned for a year or life or something, that’s it.
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January 31st, 2008 |
How conveinent for Liberty Realty to remove her picture from their website, are they ashamed? Well they should be!!! Maybe they should offer training at Liberty University on “how not to get drunk and act like an a**” or wait, maybe that fellow they follow Mike Ferry, should hold a seminar about it?
Bottom line, what she did was wrong and their is no explaination for it except being a drunken fool!
Go to their website and “ASK JOE” why is his family memeber is such an idiot!!!
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January 31st, 2008 |
Agreed with K_S…
I think this is excessive, and our politically correct society is to blame. Unless she was saying something that was racist, bigoted or culturally insensitive (to justify bias), i’d just chalk it up to boorish drunken behavior (and again, everyone needs to get off the high horse here, we all do stupid things while drinking – I see it while I bartend and do it myself! LOL!).
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January 31st, 2008 |
hey greenman. a zealot is defined as a fanatically committed person. i’d say sikh’s are fanatically committed, no?
so stf up a44hole. you’re the one showing your ignorance. you don’t even understand english…
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January 31st, 2008 |
Katie S, I have been blind drunk at a bar and done dumb things….and as I said in an earlier post, an incident like this can be laughed off if it were a kid (say early-20s) doing it. But at 37 years old, you really should be a little more responsible for your behavior and not be causing these situations.
Cut “the girl” some slack you say? She’s 37 years old, she ain’t no girl. I think she deserves criticism for this incident, hopefully it will spur her to look closely at her drinking habit (problem?).
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January 31st, 2008 |
In response to British Hairways who said:
Well for some people this is “really the worst thing ever”; for other people inappropriate sexual touching (such as grabbing a girls breast) is “really the thing ever”; for others still, going off on a racist rant would be “really the worst thing ever”; and we can all probably think of at least 5 other things that would be “really the worst thing ever”. Yet, none of us has ever been the perpetrator in our own personal “worst thing ever”. So it’s okay to throw stones?
I guess my point here is perception. I doubt many of us would do something like this, but can think of 5 things that we’d never do that have been done to us by a drunk. And then we can think of 5 stupid things that we did that were drunken mistakes. Get it? My 5 drunken mistakes were someone else’s worst things ever done to them.
That’s all I meant.
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