Hate Crime at Lake Tahoe

by Terri Oshiro
9/10/09

"I don't remember any case like this, and I have been in this office for over 20 years," said Peter O'Hara, the El Dorado County deputy district attorney handling the case. "We are taking it very seriously up here." It starts with words, and then it gets worse. I believe the victim was knocked down and kicked in the face.” He said the victim’s injuries included serious facial fractures around the eye that may require surgery.

On July, Satuday 14, 2007 an Indian American man in his 30’s was brutally assaulted by Joseph and Georgia Silva at Lake Tahoe. Accompanied by his fiancee and her cousin, the three Indian Americans were deluged with verbal assaults which escalated into violence.

"There is little doubt that this case is a hate crime," said District Attorney O’Hara. "When people attack a guy like this for the color of his skin, they're attacking all of society."

As the party of three walked along the beach on Lake Tahoe, Joseph and Georgia Silva called them “Indian garbage, terrorists, and relatives of Osama bin Laden.” They then preceded to call the women Indian “sluts and whores.” According to South Lake Tahoe Police Sgt. Brad Williams, “The incident escalated to physical violence after the Silvas allegedly taunted the Indian women using “racial and sexually explicit names. The Indian man, a San Francisco resident who was visiting the area, approached the Silvas and asked them to stop calling the women names. Sargeant Williams added that, “When the man went to call police, Georgia Silva, 49, reportedly tackled him from behind, Joseph Silva, 53, kicked him in the face and both Silvas spat on him.” According to police officers, witnesses helped stop the attack. The Indian man was treated and released from Barton Memorial Hospital in Lake Tahoe.

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