Jackson Free Press

Addressing tension between Indian storeowners and their African American clientele, Ward 3 Councilman Kenneth Stokes called for dialogue between the groups at a public hearing on crime yesterday evening.

Stokes convened the hearing in response to a jury's acquittal last week of Sarbrinder Pannu, a 36-year-old storeowner who faced murder charges for the 2008 shooting of James Hawthorne Jr., after Hawthorne stole a case of beer from Pannu's store, J&S Food Mart on Medgar Evers Boulevard.

Pannu's attorney Tom Fortner argued that Pannu acted in self-defense when he shot Hawthorne, who was black, outside the store. Pannu testified that he was scared when he saw Hawthorne reach down for something from where he was sitting inside a black SUV.

A Hinds County jury acquitted Pannu Nov. 11. The killing prompted protests outside Pannu's store in 2008, and last week's verdict sparked renewed outcry from some African American community members.

In his announcement for yesterday's hearing, Stokes stated: "Human life is precious. Stealing beer is wrong. Killing a person for stealing beer is wrong."

At the hearing, Stokes said that those angered by the verdict should not retaliate against other Indian-owned businesses."It's important that there be a dialogue," Stokes said. "The Indian community and the black community (have to) have a dialogue."

At the hearing, Ward 2 Councilman Chokwe Lumumba echoed Stokes.

"I don't want anybody to think that we should be discriminating in reverse," Lumumba said. "And I don't think anybody's suggesting that. But sometimes people see that a store's owned by an Indian or somebody else, and they automatically turn against the store. On this council, we haven't done that."

Lumumba also called for a dialogue but added that those upset by the verdict could resort to "economic sanctions" by not shopping at Pannu's store.

"If there are some differences of perception, based on culture or whatever, then somebody's got to come to the table, and we've got to get that straightened out," he said. "Because we can't have people shooting people because they went into the store and got a beer. That's not an acceptable response in this society. We have to, in the community, make a decision whether folks are going to shop at certain places, ... and we should use that as leverage to get people to the table to talk about it."

Ramesh Gajjar, president of the Indian Association of Mississippi, told the Jackson Free Press this morning that an opportunity for storeowners to present their perspective would be helpful.

"It will definitely help," Gajjar said. "After this incident, we really need to get involved in this."

Previous Comments

ID

161033

Comment

It's ridiculous that a city councilman is encouraging a boycott of a law-abiding business owner for attempting to stop a thief, and it's disgusting that he's intentionally confusing the issue by claiming that the store owner shot the thief for stealing a beer rather than in self-defense, even using misleading language like "got a beer" rather than the factually-correct stole a beer.

Author

Mark Geoffriau

Date

2010-11-19T14:56:28-06:00