This is what societies optimized for cruelty produce. Nurul Amin Shah Alam, blind Rohingya refugee who survived genocide, detained for a year on felony charges for wandering lost with a curtain rod. Released to ICE in prison booties. Abandoned at closed Tim Hortons in 20°F rain. Found dead five days later.
Every decision point had a human who could have asked “who is the person in front of me?”
Instead: homeowner called police on confused disabled man. Officers tased and beat him. DA prosecuted three felonies for trespassing while blind. State transferred him to ICE without notifying family. Border Patrol dumped him outside in freezing rain without shoes after determining he was legally present.
This is the first-order question from my new piece:
do you support systems designed for human flourishing or systems optimized for demonstrating power through cruelty?
A society is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable.
America just killed a blind refugee and every institution involved found legal justification for their piece of it.
That’s not broken bureaucracy, that’s moral collapse institutionalized.
That’s a country with ailing institutions, run by sick individuals, performing immoral acts.
I wonder whether the broken bureaucracy would have been not so broken; and whether the individuals involved would not have been so "sick" if this had happened before DOGE destruction of institutions and the present administrations hires after they fired career staff who had been there for years if not decades ?
Thank you for outlining details and possible alternate actions in a process that was over a year long. It’s a reminder for all of us that we all have choices. We really need to choose empathy during the “process”. This man has lost his life at our hands. His family has to live with this untimely and preventable loss. What are we doing?
"we all have choices" yes. Just want to point out that is the theme of Preet Bharara's book "Doing Justice". We have a justice system and the rule of law, but it works only when individuals do the right thing.
I don't blame the homeowner. A woman living alone, with a strange and oddly-behaving man in her backyard, should not be expected to confront him. We have police to handle these situations and we have a right to expect them to not escalate into violence unless it is forced upon them.
I watched the video, and Shah Alam was admittedly behaving very strangely and advancing upon them while waving the rods around. (Blind people typically do move their walking stick from side-to-side to feel out the space in front of them.) However, the police went in with tasers drawn and did not attempt to do an initial assessment or de-escalate the situation.
Like how you break down the series of events that lead to this trajedy. It's so often the case in many horrible situations that it's never just one thing.
The curiosity comment reminded me of my favorite Ted Lasso scenes. World would be so much better if people were just more curious.
What a great clip! I've never seen Ted Lasso. And it's so true - people judging you has nothing to do with you. It's all on them and their fear. It's like every time they judge you they are declaring, "I'm insecure and feel inferior."
Your description of the DA kind of answers my question before I ask it. But what are the chances of the cbp agents being prosecuted by the county or state for manslaughter or gross criminal negligence? Their actions were outrageous and the outcome entirely foreseeable.
In absolutely no way do I mean to blame the family, but I do have a thought about preventing anymore tragedies like this. Having a laminated card on a lanyard or wristband with the family’s contact info and the basic gist of his disability and ways to contact a translator might be a helpful thing for others in the future.
And, how can we make sure that anyone with this level of vision loss has a proper cane instead of a curtain rod? I’m going to check with the local association for the blind about this.
It does seem like the key preventative measure here is to quit having D.A.’s and law enforcement who are always having to play at “tough on crime” instead of being problem solvers.
I'm disgusted, sickened, disappointed and saddened by this entire chain of events. Thank you for shining a bright light at the entire system amd process that enabled this tragedy. Maybe it will result in some much needed changes.
This is what societies optimized for cruelty produce. Nurul Amin Shah Alam, blind Rohingya refugee who survived genocide, detained for a year on felony charges for wandering lost with a curtain rod. Released to ICE in prison booties. Abandoned at closed Tim Hortons in 20°F rain. Found dead five days later.
Every decision point had a human who could have asked “who is the person in front of me?”
Instead: homeowner called police on confused disabled man. Officers tased and beat him. DA prosecuted three felonies for trespassing while blind. State transferred him to ICE without notifying family. Border Patrol dumped him outside in freezing rain without shoes after determining he was legally present.
This is the first-order question from my new piece:
do you support systems designed for human flourishing or systems optimized for demonstrating power through cruelty?
A society is measured by how it treats its most vulnerable.
America just killed a blind refugee and every institution involved found legal justification for their piece of it.
That’s not broken bureaucracy, that’s moral collapse institutionalized.
That’s a country with ailing institutions, run by sick individuals, performing immoral acts.
Disgusting.
—Johan
I wonder whether the broken bureaucracy would have been not so broken; and whether the individuals involved would not have been so "sick" if this had happened before DOGE destruction of institutions and the present administrations hires after they fired career staff who had been there for years if not decades ?
Excellent breakdown of the consequences of biases.
An incredibly important piece. I appreciate the way you drew out each step. "Because no one is just a cog." Thank you for your work and insights.
Your 5-point synopsis of the justifications at each juncture could each be replaced with "...just following protocols. (orders)"
He didn’t speak the language so they didn’t consider him to be a human being. And he didn’t look like them. What a travesty.
Thank you for outlining details and possible alternate actions in a process that was over a year long. It’s a reminder for all of us that we all have choices. We really need to choose empathy during the “process”. This man has lost his life at our hands. His family has to live with this untimely and preventable loss. What are we doing?
"we all have choices" yes. Just want to point out that is the theme of Preet Bharara's book "Doing Justice". We have a justice system and the rule of law, but it works only when individuals do the right thing.
I don't blame the homeowner. A woman living alone, with a strange and oddly-behaving man in her backyard, should not be expected to confront him. We have police to handle these situations and we have a right to expect them to not escalate into violence unless it is forced upon them.
I watched the video, and Shah Alam was admittedly behaving very strangely and advancing upon them while waving the rods around. (Blind people typically do move their walking stick from side-to-side to feel out the space in front of them.) However, the police went in with tasers drawn and did not attempt to do an initial assessment or de-escalate the situation.
That is exactly the context we all needed. Many thanks.
Thank you Asha for this reporting! Extremely sad story!
Like how you break down the series of events that lead to this trajedy. It's so often the case in many horrible situations that it's never just one thing.
The curiosity comment reminded me of my favorite Ted Lasso scenes. World would be so much better if people were just more curious.
https://youtu.be/3S16b-x5mRA?si=nWmUsEGkTtvswNbL
What a great clip! I've never seen Ted Lasso. And it's so true - people judging you has nothing to do with you. It's all on them and their fear. It's like every time they judge you they are declaring, "I'm insecure and feel inferior."
Your description of the DA kind of answers my question before I ask it. But what are the chances of the cbp agents being prosecuted by the county or state for manslaughter or gross criminal negligence? Their actions were outrageous and the outcome entirely foreseeable.
This is just sickening.
In absolutely no way do I mean to blame the family, but I do have a thought about preventing anymore tragedies like this. Having a laminated card on a lanyard or wristband with the family’s contact info and the basic gist of his disability and ways to contact a translator might be a helpful thing for others in the future.
And, how can we make sure that anyone with this level of vision loss has a proper cane instead of a curtain rod? I’m going to check with the local association for the blind about this.
It does seem like the key preventative measure here is to quit having D.A.’s and law enforcement who are always having to play at “tough on crime” instead of being problem solvers.
Thank you for this Asha!!!!
This is just heartbreaking and horrible. Anyone could see that he had difficulty both seeing and communicating, where is our humanity?
I'm disgusted, sickened, disappointed and saddened by this entire chain of events. Thank you for shining a bright light at the entire system amd process that enabled this tragedy. Maybe it will result in some much needed changes.
Just so sad