Marcos Bretón: Evading law isn't Christian

Most of the time, Sacramento is diverse and tolerant. It is friendly and forgiving.

But not today.

Today marks one month since Satender Singh, 26, was brutally punched in the face -- an attack during a daylight confrontation between men shouting insults at each other on a very public lakeside beach.

Singh suffered a ruptured brain stem after being struck at Lake Natoma, then lingered on life support for four days until he died.

One month after the attack, the person responsible and key people who saw it happen are still at large.

No arrests. No justice. No peace.

It is shameful that Singh has long since been laid to rest in his native Fiji while those who caused his death and witnessed it are still out there.

It is disturbing that the initial shock of what authorities suspect was a hate crime -- an attack on a man believed by his attackers to be gay -- has dissipated greatly.

It is immoral that Singh's killing has been shrouded by a conspiracy of silence.

"It's not surprising to me, people don't like to get involved," said Jerry Chong, a Sacramento-based civil rights lawyer and leader in the Asian and Pacific Islander community.

"People are frightened. People want to protect the person. It's a siege mentality."

OK. A daylight crime where witnesses develop sudden blindness or disappear is hardly a new phenomenon. For his part, Chong says he's seen it many times in his legal career.

The point here is that silence envelops a crime in which a man may have been targeted for his sexual orientation. Witnesses told authorities that "Russian-speaking" men shouted homophobic obscenities at Singh before he was punched.

If time proves them correct, then that's a hate crime.

Clearly, all violent crimes are serious. But what's more ominous here is the singling out of a person for violence simply for who he is.

Is Sacramento that kind of community?

Is this where people can get away with causing the death of a man because they think he's gay, where they can attack him and then hide successfully?

Is that type of conspiracy really possible here?

In the meantime, this conspiracy of silence has focused unwanted attention on Sacramento's Slavic community, some of whose members from evangelical churches had held incendiary, anti-gay protests before Singh's killing.

That caused great tension between Slavic evangelicals and gays and lesbians before Singh was attacked.

Now, Sgt. Tim Curran, a spokesman for the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, confirms that the suspects linked to Singh's killing are from the Slavic community.

Curran said some members of that community have been helpful to the investigation -- but the people suspected of being involved have not.

One wonders whether the suspects were fueled by the anti-gay rhetoric shouted at protests around town before Singh was attacked.

A month later, we still don't know much in this case.

But we do know this: Attacking a man, causing his death and then hiding from the law is the opposite of Christian principles.

The Christian thing to do is to come forward, to step out of the darkness of violence and lies and to follow the Christian imperative of truth and reconciliation.

Anything short of that is unacceptable in any community.

About the writer:

• Reach Marcos Bretón at (916) 321-1096 or mbreton@sacbee.com. Listen to him at 8:40 a.m. Tuesdays on NewsTalk 1530 KFBK. Back columns, www.sacbee.com/breton.