Easa Begzad will not get one million dollars from the Hayward, California, Police Department to compensate for insults to Islam made by two Hayward police officers. But it seems that he will not because the officers were able to convince the jury that they didn’t make the remarks. Does that mean that if the jury had been convinced that the officers had called Islamic art “garbage,” they would have given Begzad his million? From the looks of this report, no one seems to have been saying, “Hey, they called some posters on your wall ‘garbage.’ That may show them to be boors and idiots, so don’t invite them to your next dinner party. But it doesn’t entitle you to one red cent.”
This case should never have advanced as far as it did. The fact that it did manifests once again that the mentality of dhimmi subservience has advanced with stunning rapidity in the U.S. Can you imagine some Christian bringing suit because someone called Christian religious art “garbage”? He’d be laughed out of court. But not Easa Begzad. “Insulting Islam” is apparently now a potential million-dollar offense.
From the Daily Review, with thanks to Sr. Soph:
HAYWARD “” A federal jury has rejected the lawsuit of a Muslim businessman who accused two Hayward police officers of making derogatory remarks about Islam.
Easa Begzad, who owned a Foley Street factory that manufactured Afghan sweets, sued the city of Hayward for allegedly violating his civil rights after police detained and hospitalized him following a police call to his business in 2002.
But after a civil trial that lasted nearly two weeks, a jury in U.S. District Court in San Francisco returned a verdict late Thursday afternoon in favor of the two officers. The jury rejected Begzad’s demands for $1 million from the city….
Randolph Hom, an assistant city attorney for Hayward, said the testimony of Begzad and the two people who claimed to see or overhear the incident did not stand up in court.
“The key to the victory was that the jury believed the officers and rejected the testimony of Begzad, his friends, family and treating physician,” Hom said Friday in a written statement. “Cases like this often turn on the credibility of witnesses.”
The dispute arose in May 2002 when a property manager for Balch Enterprises, the Hayward company that leased the Foley Street building to Begzad, called
9-1-1 to report that Begzad was threatening to kill himself and his family.
Police Sgt. Keith Bryan, now the head of community services for the Hayward Police Department, and Officer Kenneth Hedrick, now a detective, responded to the call.
Khawaja has said police officers spotted the religious posters and tapestries Begzad used to decorate his wall and said, “What’s that garbage?”
Police officers denied making those remarks.