Police: Vicious beating of cab driver was a hate crime
FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- When Auburn police asked a local cab driver to take a drunk man home, they had no idea he would soon become the victim of a vicious hate crime.
Jamie Larson has been arrested 19 times over the years for offenses ranging from assault to domestic violence to drugs. Now police say Larson can add a hate crime to the list.
Police say Larson insulted and then beat a cab driver simply because he thought the man was Arab. It turns out he's actually Indian and a devout Sikh.
"There have been beatings, shootings, arsons, in some cases killings of people who are Muslims themselves or are perceived to be Muslim," said Arsalan Bukhari of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Bukhari said he's deeply troubled by this attack and others directed against Muslims and Arabs.
"We're seeing a spike in these crimes, especially in the last year, and most specifically in the last two months," he said.
Auburn police first picked up Larson outside a Fred Meyer store. Management told them he seemed drunk and wouldn't leave, even after he fell into bushes in the parking lot.
Officers called a cab, and the driver agreed to take Larson to his home in Federal Way. While they were driving, Larson made "racial comments" to the driver, according to court documents.
Things took a turn for the worse when the driver reached Larson's home. The victim said Larson "ripped part of his beard off his face" and then "punched him in the face and body repeatedly," according to the documents. Witnesses called the attack "savage."
While Larson sits in jail awaiting his next court date, Bukhari is trying to set the record straight about who Muslims are and asking people to speak out about the hate crimes and bias the religion faces.
"They want to come forward and make sure that their neighbors know that these events are not relegated to Florida or California. They are happening right here in the state of Washington," he said.
Auburn police say they will sometimes call cabs for people as a courtesy, but it's up to the discretion of the officer. They point out that the cab driver agreed to take the fare and the passenger showed no signs of being a threat to others.
Jamie Larson has been arrested 19 times over the years for offenses ranging from assault to domestic violence to drugs. Now police say Larson can add a hate crime to the list.
Police say Larson insulted and then beat a cab driver simply because he thought the man was Arab. It turns out he's actually Indian and a devout Sikh.
"There have been beatings, shootings, arsons, in some cases killings of people who are Muslims themselves or are perceived to be Muslim," said Arsalan Bukhari of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Bukhari said he's deeply troubled by this attack and others directed against Muslims and Arabs.
"We're seeing a spike in these crimes, especially in the last year, and most specifically in the last two months," he said.
Auburn police first picked up Larson outside a Fred Meyer store. Management told them he seemed drunk and wouldn't leave, even after he fell into bushes in the parking lot.
Officers called a cab, and the driver agreed to take Larson to his home in Federal Way. While they were driving, Larson made "racial comments" to the driver, according to court documents.
Things took a turn for the worse when the driver reached Larson's home. The victim said Larson "ripped part of his beard off his face" and then "punched him in the face and body repeatedly," according to the documents. Witnesses called the attack "savage."
While Larson sits in jail awaiting his next court date, Bukhari is trying to set the record straight about who Muslims are and asking people to speak out about the hate crimes and bias the religion faces.
"They want to come forward and make sure that their neighbors know that these events are not relegated to Florida or California. They are happening right here in the state of Washington," he said.
Auburn police say they will sometimes call cabs for people as a courtesy, but it's up to the discretion of the officer. They point out that the cab driver agreed to take the fare and the passenger showed no signs of being a threat to others.
Thank you KOMO for covering this. The attack was on a Sikh. The person interviewed is Muslim. Why? Did the Sikh community not want to be heard? Or are they again a victim of neglect from the media - as they have been since 2001 in this country.Â
WOW? I know People in the Middle East would Love to Have Americans in their Cab.
the police should have NEVER put that guy in his cab! He needed to be in jail for drunk in public, especially with his past record. I don't usually blame the police, but that was totally unfair to the driver to saddle him with that guy.Â
It just came to me that being drunk and belligerent in public is actually a medical condition, and the medics should be called, the patient being billed accordingly. Being drunk is self inflicted insanity, so the white coats need to come and put the straight jacket on, and it needs to cost a LOT to take it back off.
"Jamie Larson has been arrested 19 times over the years for offenses ranging from assault to domestic violence to drugs."
It's too bad that nobody saw that he was a pressure cooker ready to blow his lid. He sure had all of the symptoms.
There is a lot of anger on the street. A lot have gone hungry since the "recovery". I have considered driving a cab, but it wouldn't be a first choice.
I hated that the cops put that drunk girl in a cab in Kirkland (three years ago?), and she was dead on the freeway 15 minutes later. I wish there was a better way.
The bigger issue for me is what makes one human being think it's okay to reduce another to a race, or religion, and further, attack that person, because his race or religion is different?
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It is not "PC" to expect to be treated with dignity and respect. Â
 @meteorman no
-This PC hate crime stuff I hear about is really assault and battery. Call it what it really is. Evil and the people who perpetrate it are sick and need to be punished.
Just the other day, I had to educate a friend of mine about the differences between Muslim and Sikh - she thought the turban meant they were Muslim. My Dad fought in WWII in the African Campaign with Sikhs from Turkey, he said they were always polite but in combat they could scare the beejeezus out of anybody they way they put that knife between their teeth and yelled as they charged over a hill. It's really terrible how they are suffering in this country because of false ideas. Â
 @Elaine2 do you realize the bias in your statements, and in the others here?  There is nothing wrong with being Muslim. Period. Are you afraid of Kareem Abdul Jabbar? Cat Stevens? Mohammed Ali?  Why do people need to be educated on the differences?  People are people, regardless of their faith.Â
I don't see the bias.  My friend thought that a turban meant Muslim, so I told her no, they don't wear turbans. Many Sikhs have been murdered because many people assume what my friend assumed. I think you are overly sensitive to comments.
When is a vicious beating not a hate crime.Â
 @oledawg I hate the term so much....another "feel good" term like "domestic violence"....no, there is just violence. Plain and simple. Assault is assault, murder is murder, no need to go further than that. More laws like "hate crime" laws do not make anybody safer, it just is unnecessary. Why does the race or sex of an individual matter to the crime?
well, i think it's so that people have more information of the types of crime occuring in and around their neighborhoods, the more information the better.
The guy is a KNOWN walking time bomb yet he's still out there, a threat to all. Why is this? How come our so called 'justice department' is such a total failure with idiots such as this along with those malicious, gun-toting males out there killing women and little girls? What purpose does 'justice' serve when creeps such as Larson have free reign to wander the streets and do whatever they feel like?
 @ytboarder "those malicious, gun-toting males"? Excuse me? Pretty clear your bias here. Does your memory not go as far back as the crazy woman who shot several people in a store in Gig Harbor just a few months ago? And one of the guys just died from that crazed attack? What's with your sexism? Women and men have equal capacity for violence and destruction.
 @dg54321  @ytboarder They may have equal capacity but the statistics consistently show men are usually the agressors. See http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/gender.cfm
 @shlibotnik  @dg54321  @ytboarder Yes, it's called testosterone. Seems to me like a lot of the women around here are producing more and more of that too these days though.
 Not that there's anything wrong with that!
Hey another been arrested over 19 times story walking the streets...
Send him on a one way trip to wherever in the world he's afraid of most.
Repeat offender, Put all of us around him out of our misery and end this POS.
He does look like an uncultured, unwashed, unkempt dug and alcohol addicted piece of garbage
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 @wally gruentenheimer I said uncultured, not uneducated. Uncultured used in this context means without class or upbringing.
he looks unemployed, and probably looks to blame others for his issues, especially people that are different from him...
Hey, you know what? I'm far more comfortable with Arabs over drug addicted dirtbags who do harm on people because of their race like this guy. Keep this trash locked up!
poor disenchanted lives all over the places. Â
LOSER = Jamie Larson, who  would benefit from being hung upside down then caned on his bare feet by the cab driver he beat up.
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Eye for an eye, buddy.
@Smokin Bear That's a fabulous idea. It should be followed by a 20 year stretch in the big house.
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@david davey Actually you sound like you are on drugs as well.
@david davey Try reposting and making a bit of sense, you're clear out in left field.
Download a song, prison time. Proven danger to society, slap on the wrist..again and again and again and again
Yet another ignorant SOB.
assume police checked his priors ? and told the cabbie he was potentially dangerous ?Â
@justme Sounds like grounds for possible (and probable)Â legal action to me....
Please tell me that this waste of oxygen has totaled up enough points to qualify for three strikes, he clearly belongs in prison. Prayers to the victim.
And we allow habitually violent people to roam our streets why??????
@Citizen#3457899654Â Â Two reasons:Â 1. ACLUÂ Â Â 2. Not enough money in the corrections budget.
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freaking idiot hillbillies don't even know who they are mad at.
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....why didn' the cops drive his drunk a22 home? nice. pass the drunk felon off on an innocent cabbie...
 @SwampThing ....why didn' the cops drive his drunk a22 home? nice. pass the drunk felon off on an innocent cabbie...: Exactly what I was thinking. And to think that he would actually pay?
How are you getting this man is a hillbilly? He lives in Federal Way! Or are you being racist and screaming he is a hillbilly because he is white and committed a hate crime?
@SilverGryphon i was mainly calling him a hillbilly to imply what an inbred moron he is, evidenced by the fact he can't even keep straight who he hates/beats up.
 @SilverGryphon I think it's easy to think that violent racism is something that is foreign and only originates in rural areas when in reality racism is present everywhere. And while most people don't commit hate crimes, almost everyone harbors negative assumptions about other races as a result of growing up in a society that is permeated by racism. The main problem is that people are too afraid to own up to it.
Talk about colossal Ignorance and stupidity!!! Beating a guy because he is a moslem, and he isn't even a moslem at all, but a peaceful Sikh. Â Where and when does the stupidity and violence end??
"Bukhari is trying to set the record straight about who Muslims are and asking people to speak out about the hate crimes and bias the religion faces."
Â
A hateful and violent drunk is going to attack whoever gets in his path, for any reason he can come up with, it's not like he has some legitimate misunderstanding about religion or ethnicity. If he'd made it home, he would have beaten his wife or kids. If our justice system would put 19-time losers like Jamie Larson away, it would solve the problem. Get them off the streets.
 @Willow all the more reason to drive a guy like this home in the back of a squad car.
The Dr.'s recommendation for this loser is : jail time, sterilization, shock therapy , topped off with a lobotomy.
"...Jamie Larson has been arrested 19 times over the years..."
We shouldn't even be having this conversation.
@Throbbinhood  Agreed.....However, the problem is, there are thousands just like him out running around. What does society do with them? We don't have enough money to lock them all up.
The billion or so dollars we blew on so-called "green" energy upstarts that have since failed would have been nice to have delagated to that - for starters... Would have made for plenty of good jobs nationwide in the process.
Tattoo "Mohammed Sucks" on his forehead, and drop him off in Iran. THAT should take care of the problem pretty fast.