The Lakshmi temple in Massachusetts was vandalised twice recently. Photo courtesy of NEHTI
Ashland (UK): The oldest and one of the largest Hindu temples in New England was vandalized twice recently, resulting in over $9,000 in damages, and a temple official isn’t ruling out racism as a possible cause.
During the night of Aug. 4 to Aug. 5, police, who happened to be patrolling the area around the Sri Lakshmi Temple, found several broken bottles with a rag-wick type of device inside. In July, all the outside lights in the parking lot of the temple were damaged after Molotov-cocktail type devices set two lampposts on fire, burning the wires and destroying the entire electrical system. No property damage took place in August.
"We don’t know at this point if these (incidents) have been racially motivated or not," said Kumar Nochur, the chairman (TBC) of the temple’s board of trustees. "We are neither complacent nor paranoid. We are waiting to find out more."
Three minors from Framingham, Mass. have confessed to being involved in the August incident after they were caught on the temple’s security camera. The boys told Ashland police that the vandalism had nothing to do with "the people who go there to worship," according to police officer David Muri.
Due to the information they obtained from these confessions, and after interviewing witnesses in the neighborhood, Ashland police do not believe at this time the incident was a hate crime.
"There is no evidence indicating it was racially, religiously or ethnically motivated," Muri said.
Still, he added that because the incidents involved an explosive device in a place of worship, the police are "taking it a lot more seriously than if it had been kids out in the middle of the woods somewhere".
Muri would not reveal the names, ages, or ethnicities of the boys who confessed.
Unlike police, Nochur isn’t ruling out racism yet, since he has not heard the confessions himself. He added that no one has been held responsible in connection with the act of vandalism which took place in July.
Those responsible for the July incident were also caught on camera, but could not be identified because the image was very vague after the lights in the parking lot burned out, said temple president Avu Chokalingam.
"My view is that we want to find out the facts and react based on the facts and not on fear and emotion," Chokalingam said. "I don’t want to overreact."
Although no arrests have been made so far, Ashland police chief Scott Rohmer said the department is confident that it will be bringing criminal charges against between three and five individuals in the coming weeks. Police are currently talking with suspects and witnesses who live in the neighborhood, he said.
The district attorney’s office, the state police, and the fire marshal’s office are assisting Ashland police in the investigation.
Police have increased patrols around the temple at night, and the temple itself has taken additional precautions, although officials would not disclose the nature of these new security measures.
The video cameras were installed in the temple parking lot following an incident of vandalism in the fall of 2002, when a teenager spray-painted a racial slur on a large rock bordering the parking lot.
According to the temple president, the temple is easily recognized as a Hindu place of worship from its architecture and signs.
Source: indianewengland.com
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